Understanding copyright laws and fair use guidelines in important for teachers. Please read the article from the Standford Libraries, http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter9/index.html
In the comment section of this blog, write 2 important things that you learned from this reading.
Melissa Cast-Brede, from the UNO library will be the guest presenter in our class on Monday. She will address copyright, on-line library resources, and information literacy.
I thought the “Four Factors” were a good guide to fair use. The descriptions of “acknowledgment” and “disclaimer were very important. I understand that they are good ideas, but not necessarily the best idea. The best idea seems to be to ask the copyright holder for permission. The section on “Summaries of Fair Use Cases” was very informative. I was amazed at how subjective the fair use v. infringement judgments seemed to be.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this article, it seems that the rules are pretty basic. Don't copy someone's work and try to pass it off as your own. The more information you use of someone else's the more likely it isn't legal. It is more permissible to use information from a factual work rather than a non-fiction work. Basically, if it seems like most of your words are not YOUR words, you probably aren't doing it right!
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the guide and having dealt with “copyright issues” as a home designer, I became more confused about what “copyright” and "fair use” is.
ReplyDeleteWhat I have learned is this:
1) You may very well need a Law degree to full understand the intricate details of what constitutes "legal" uses of copyrighted materials.
2) Copyright and Fair Use Laws are ever changing. With challenges to how the law is applied, and varying interpretations by the courts, current laws need to be monitored daily to keep abreast of what is and is not legal.
My question is this, as teachers we want to teach our students about copyright laws, fair use and issues of academic integrity, but as demonstrated in the “case summary” at the end of the article, what may seem perfectly plausible use – may actually be illegal. How can we then ensure that our own reading/interpretation is correct? What about “for educational purposes,” how is this different, and what rights/restrictions do teachers have.
The first important piece of information from this article is realizing that the majority of what I teach to students falls under the comment and criticism title. I think the realization is important because it helps me to isolate which piece of fair use I should be studying the most.
ReplyDeleteThe second bit of important information is the "when are you going to be sued" section. This section reaffirms to me that I do not know everything about fair use. I am comfortable with this. I know that when I want to incorporate new things into my lessons and am unsure about the legality of it, I need to double check. I feel very comfortable with the lack of knowledge simply because I know several resources (media specialists, etc) who are more well-versed and can steer me in the right direction.
Copyright is very easy and very NOT easy to avoid. It seems that showing a video to a class can be against the law. You must be very careful, and it seems almost a waste of time to even try to copy something.
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize how easy it is to get sued. You hae to be extremely careful what you use in your lessons to avoid infringing on copyright.
Being an artist, the understanding of fair use seems pretty basic and easy to understand. If its mostly your words or work then you may stand to have legal action taken against you. This ruling is however very subjective. The best way to avoid issues is to ask the person who owns the coyrighted work for permission to use it first. The examples of court cases of fair use in this article wasvery helpful in clarifying much of the subjectiveness of use.
ReplyDeleteThere were two sections of this article in which I learned something:
ReplyDeleteCommenting or critiquing: This is the main way that I use the fair use policy in the classroom. I teach social studies, and one focus that we have is on current events. To find current events I use internet news sites in my classroom and we read the stories and discuss the implications for the USA. I do give proper credit for the source of information, and I always give the students a proper citation. After reading the article I now know that I should not give the students entire portions of the article in a handout, but that we should read the article together online as the website publisher intended.
When are you likely to get sued? : This was an eye opener to me. It reminded me that I am by no means an expert in copyright and fair use guidelines, and that I should read articles like this every so often to remind myself of the laws.
The two very important things I learned from reading this article were 1. If you aren't sure ask and 2. Acknowledgement and disclaimers will not always help you. After reading the summary of cases I found that even after reading the fair use guidelines I didn't fully understand them enough to know what would be considered fair or unfair. Due to this fact I've learned that when in doubt ASK! It is better to be safe than sorry and if you really aren't sure you should just ask for permission. Secondly, I learned that simply acknowledging the use to give credit or adding a disclaimer to your work will not always save you. The article taught me that sometimes acknowledgment can backfire on you, such in cases of right of publicity. So even if you give credit to the person you took the work from does not mean it can’t be found as infringement. Also even adding a disclaimer will not be a safety net for you and you can still be ruled against in copyright cases. The article was very informative but in the end to me its’ main lesson is when in doubt ask for permission.
ReplyDeleteCopyright can be a very touchy subject. I have learned from the article that it is not necessarily okay to use a person’s work and reference it. The more that is used though, the more that it is red flagged. There is a very thin line about this. It seems that only the courts can decide and even then it is based on quite a bit of opinion. Also only using a small portion of work can be okay, but by using a small portion that is the “heart” of the piece this is illegal. These laws on the fair use and copyright can be difficult to decipher and helping the students figure it out can be a challenging task.
ReplyDeleteI thought the discussion on the transformative factor was interesting, if brief. I wish the author had elaborated more on this area, as I believe many of the issues can fall into this area.
ReplyDeleteSecond, the lawsuit issue and it's probability of happening or not happening was also a gray area. Since these are not concrete rules, but allow for a wide latitude in the courts, lawsuits present a particularly challenging problem. Since interpretations vary widely based on a variety of factors, successfully defending against a lawsuit seems daunting.
Best to seek professional advice before venturing into unknown territory with potential copyright issues!
I learned about Fair Use and how it pertains to me as a teacher and as a student. I had not heard of the rules before and now will be able to use them appropriately in my classroom and at the university.
ReplyDeleteI also learned that even though you acknowledge the source or use a disclaimer, it still may be considered an infringement of Fair Use and you may get into trouble.
So the best thing to do is to use your own words, or ask permission from the author to quote their work.
The issue of Fair Use is so murky that I'm glad we have a lecture to follow up this article. I was surprised to find that citing the author or creator of the work I wish to use is not enough to protect you under the Fair Use guidelines. I am aware that material I borrow for classroom use should be cited, but I didn't realize that simply placing the author/creator's name next to the piece was not enough. I am interested in getting more information on this as I am planning several student projects that require them to find quotes, pictures, and other material about a given subject matter
ReplyDeleteI am even more apprehensive about using anything on line or from another resource after reading this article. When was the last time a teacher was sued for 'fair use' or using someone's work in the classroom? It was surprising to see that even if I cite the author / source of the material that may not be enough, that it depends a great deal on how much of the original work was used and if it was altered / changed.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this article I think most of the rules are basic. You can't copy directly from someone elses work, things must be cited, most things are better when you are able to put things into your own words. I didn't realize though that just naming the author and the location of the work wasn't enough. I think that although the rules are basic they are often over looked by teachers and students.
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ReplyDeleteI liked the reading, but I didn't consider some of the things that are copyrighted. I wasn't aware of all the music copyright laws there are. I found that to be interesting. I also thought the "Four Factors" did a good job spelling out how to measure fair use.
ReplyDeleteBeing in the teaching profession, I need to be aware of copyright infringement. One of my top concerns is xeroxing book tests and reading material from books. I know that the tests I use come from a book that is licensed and sold to copy as much as I need to so I don't worry about that as much. I do worry about text that is xeroxed from a book. I don't let the kids take it from the classroom, and I always collect it back when we are finished using it in class.
The article was very informative and provided a pretty good understanding of fair use. I agree with other posts that knowing more about fair use doesn't necessarily mean that I am comfortable with using anyone's work without permission. It is tricky!
ReplyDeleteIn library at the elementary schools we focus a lot on teaching kids to cite sources in their work. While this is very important, I didn't realize that just citing a source is not always enough to protect you from a lawsuit.
Also, I was a bit concerned when I read the information about software installation above the amount of licenses you own. We have a program that is installed on all of our machines and housed on our server at school. We have license for 40 copies to run at once. I know I asked the company when we first installed if that was all right and they said yes, but I am going to check our paperwork to be sure!
Before reading the article I assumed that copyright laws were numerous but not so fuzzy. It's a little scary that, according to the article, ". . . the only way to get a definitive answer on whether a particular use is a fair use is to have it resolved in federal court." I did not know the four factors upon which court cases are judged. While it is helpful to know these four factors the answers to some of my questions remain unclear.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was interesting to read about fair use case rulings that contradicted each other. I assumed that judges would research previous cases to make rulings more consistent, which in turn would make fulfilling fair use practices a little easier. The fact that some cases are contradictory makes me question the fairness of the "laws" in the first place.