Wk 6 Disc. 1 Copyright issues

 

            In the education world, I believe that many teachers are aware of the issues regarding copyright and material in print. Many times in the faculty room, teachers will discuss the issues of copyright in regards to different situations. I have heard of teachers copying whole chapters in books due to not having enough material. Teachers, including myself, will cut and paste text material to supplement lessons. Are these illegal activities or are they covered by the fair use guidelines and copyright basics that we have read about in our resources? I am sure that teachers in both situations will try to justify their actions. These two situations are in regards to printed material, the world of the internet opens up a whole new set of questions in regards to copyright.

            There are many documents and groups that have tried to set guidelines for use of material, the US Copyright Act, TEACH Act, CONFU, and Fair Use Guideline for Educators to name a few. Reading the guidelines as put in print by these different groups should clarify the many questions that any educator might have. It is easy to understand that just about everything is copyrighted (Harper,G., 2002). What one has to question is the use and breathe of the material used. Unfortunately, much of the guidelines are left to the interpretation of the reader (Starr, L., 2000).

            In regards to the question, whether the school should be held accountable for enforcing students (and teachers?) for copyright issues/laws is debatable. As in any learning environment, the school can educate the students and staff on copyright issues, but to police the use of material would be difficult. I am sure that the school can have the students and staff learn and sign wavers stating knowledge, but I still think that the in the end the school would be accountable to the law. Take the example of the movie shown in a class with a student being the daughter of a producer. Whether this educator was educated in or ignorant of the copyright issues, the school was still held accountable in the lawsuit (Starr, L., 2000).

            Through the learning in this course, I have become more knowledgeable of copyright issues and the fair use guidelines. I was able to receive permission to post images on my PowerPoint presentations using the guidelines covered. In the future, prior to beginning projects, I plan to discuss these issues with my students. I will also set a good example in my interpretation of the laws and guidelines with material used in presentations.

 

Starr, L. (2004). Copyrights and Copying Wrongs. Education World. Retrieved
July 28, 2006, from http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr280a.shtml

 

Harper, G., (2002), The TEACH Act. Retrieved August 1, 2006, from http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/teachact.htm

 

 

Responses

 

Skip,

 

You mentioned school liability and the school websites. This might be the most readily seen infringement of copyright. Schools are just as responsible if teachers are copying text. I do not think that ignorance of this situation would protect the school.

 

Shelley

 

References

 

Starr, L. (2000). Applying fair use to new technolgies. Retrieved
July 28, 2006, from http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr280a.shtml .

 

 

Wendy,

 

I am reassured by the fair use guidelines. I am sure that the students and I can adhere to the rules. I also feel better knowing more about copyright to share with my students.

 

Shelley

 

Wendy,

 

I also found the checklist on the TEACH Act helpful. In the article from Education World, the boxed notes were also very concise and helpful.

 

One issue that concerns me is the saving of presentations. One line of our reading says 15 days and another refers to two years (Starr, L., 2000). Either way, once created a presentation is very valuable. I would hate to have to do over.

 

Shelley

 

References

 

Starr, L. (2000). Applying fair use to new technolgies. Retrieved
July 28, 2006, from http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr280a.shtml .

 

Nikki,

 

There are so many interpretations of use, the percentages, intended use, creativity, etc.

 

One of the key elements bothering me is when does a fact belong to the student knowledge and when is it stealing. There are many facts that we have learned over time with no idea of their origin.

 

There are rules and guidelines to citations and copyright. I would hope that if text or facts were used correctly, copyright would not be a problem. On the other hand, images, art, video can not become knowledge. They belong to the creator and permission should be asked.

 

Shelley

 

Tracy,

 

I enjoyed reading your discussion. Your humor made us criminals feel a little better.

 

I, like so many of us, thought that if it is on the WWW it is free. Nice thought, but we now know better. When we first began our websites, I had been using the “dancing chicken” image for years. I had no idea where I had found it, so I deleted it from my site. I did put it back because it worked so well for my website. Other images that I use often are from the work of MC Escher.

 

I just recently emailed the company that owns the copyright to his images and asked permission to use….not a problem!

 

As usual, we will do our best to adhere to the rules and guidelines of copyright. Just one more thing to add to our accountability bag, which is quite full.

 

Shelley

 

Kathy,

 

Good for you! It is very difficult to do the right thing at times. I am glad that you were able to work this out. I also feel that in most situations, if we adhere to the percentage and use of material and especially the “profit” criteria, we will be within the fair use guidelines.

 

May I make a suggestion…at  http://www.njpep.org/index.html there is plenty of material for the state tests. These can be projected on an LCD or TV monitor. Share this site with your colleague…it has always been helpful to me.

 

Shelley

 

Carrie,

 

I am sure that in the coming year you will find yourself using the internet more due to the interactions and teachings in our courses. There are so many advantageous sites for student learning. There are also many opportunities to enhance a lesson, especially in high school math.

 

The article that you read and quoted seemed to add more insight into the tangled web of copyright. I agree that teachers are somewhat safe in use of material in the classroom, we have to be careful on the internet. There is an interesting article on Copyright and the Internet (Montecino, V., 1996) at http://mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/copyright-internet.htm . It has some helpful guidelines for our web sites.

 

Shelley

 

 

Top of Form	Carrie Panepinto	2 Aug 06    1:18 PM MST
School should be held accountable for having student adhere to the copyright laws. Why? Because we are showing students how to use the internet and how to create different types of documents and therefore need to teach the students the legality of creating and using pieces of the internet. I have never held a situation with copyright laws in my classroom mainly since I have not been using the internet. Keeping it Legal: Questions Arising out of Web Site Management http://www.fno.org/jun96/legal.html This article states the following about teachers using materials for use in the classroom “In general terms, teachers are allowed to make "fair use" of materials for instructional purposes. "Fair use" has been interpreted to include those limited uses which are not likely to deprive a publisher or an author from income.” I found it interesting that teachers can use the materials as long as they are not take money away from the author or creator. I think that this is a good way to think about using the internet. Teachers can talk to students and share with the students the copyright laws and the consequences of breaking the laws. The article continues to say: “In general terms, students might make rather liberal use of information, text and graphics so long as their resulting works remain within the classroom setting. The moment the works move out of the classroom, they may fall under a "public performance" clause of the copyright law which imposes much greater restrictions and fees. We must distinguish between "practice" publishing and "real" publishing.” This is a great way to inform students of the use of the internet and the extend at which it can be “published” As a final statement from the article this can sum up what it is to follow the copyright laws, “As a general rule, neither teachers nor students may safely make use of other's materials (graphics, text, etc.) when they publish on the Web unless they have requested and received formal permission to do so.” It is essential for teachers and the school district to explain the laws to the students simple because if the student breaks the law in your classroom or district on the server, you as the teacher could be held accountable. Resources: McKenzie, Jamie. Keeping it Legal: Questions Arising out of Web Site Management http://www.fno.org/jun96/legal.html Retrived August 2, 2006. Date Modified: 2 Aug 06    1:20 PM MST Respond
	Kathleen Warren	2 Aug 06    3:03 PM MST
The issue of copyright accountability is very complex. I understand that people have a right to be credited for their work, but to what degree? As an elementary teacher, I myself, am confused by the laws and rules governing copyrights. On numerous occasions I have used materials in my lessons to help supplement units of study. My students have often found an interesting article or picture to share with the class that related to a particular subject area. Personally, I feel that if the person does not intend to make a profit from the use of the text or images, it should fall under "Fair Use". As stated in the article "Keeping it Legal: Questions Arising out of Web Site Management", fair use applies to "limited uses which are not likely to deprive a publisher or an author from income" (McKenzie, J. 1996). When a teacher or student uses a portion of text or image for a presentation of any sort they are not depriving anyone of profit. Especially in regards to students, their work will be shown once or twice and they will be done with it. Perhaps teachers should be more accountable, since they will most likely be using the materials repeatedly. One situation arose this past spring when we began our test preparations with our fifth graders. A consultant with a major text company gave me a copy of a New Jersey grade five "ASK" prep book to share with my principal. When one of my colleagues saw it, she asked if she could make copies of it for our whole fifth grade unit. Each page had a typed message reading "Not to be copied or distributed". We actually got into a "heated" discussion, since I would not allow her to do that, due to copyright infringement. Our principal suggested rewording the questions, which would have taken much time and effort. We finally decided, since the materials were very useful, to choose select problems, reword them, and display them on the LCD projector as a daily review problem. Nothing was copied, no laws were broken, and the students benefited from discussing the problems as a whole. In this example, the company would have lost profit, since the school would have possibly purchased the workbooks for use by the entire grade. In closing, I do feel that schools have a responsibility to explain, discuss, and follow the guidelines set for copyrights. Whether we agree or not, laws are laws. As educators, we need to set good examples. This might be an excellent debate topic for students in the upper grades. It would be interesting to hear their opinions regarding this issue. References: McKenzie, J. (1996). Keeping it Legal: Questions Arising out of Web Site Management. Retrieved August 2, 2006, from http://www.fno.org/jun96/legal.html Respond   Bottom of Form

Burke,

In all the different reading that I have searched this week, it seems that copyright laws in education focus on character of material, nature of use, amount used, and value of material (U.S. Copyright Office, 2006). It is not all that vague, if we use good judgment and morals, we will conduct ourselves appropriately. At times, we will make errors, but it is okay to be human.

 

It would seem that this revised piece of the Copyright Law says what we have discussed all week, “The safest course is always to get permission from the copyright owner before using copyrighted material” (U.S. Copyright Office, 2006).

 Shelley

 

Reference

U.S. Copyright Office. (July2006). Retrieved August 6, 20076 from http://www.copyright.gov/