Copyright

Critical Reflection #4

According to the Copyright Frequently Asked Questions page on teachingcopyright.org, "Copyright is a form of legal protection automatically provided to the authors of 'original works of authorship,' including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works." Basically, any idea is automatically protected from misuse. When something is created, copyright laws are immediately in effect, and it lasts, in most cases, until 70 years after the death of the creator. When someone fails to obey the copyright laws, it's called copyright infringement. If someone were to infringe on a creators copyright policy, they may have to pay the owner the amount of money they originally would have made from the creation. It is recommended that creators make their copyright information known to the public, but since 1989, it is no longer required to do so. That's why it is so important for students to thoroughly know the basic laws of copyright when they are creating in the classroom. 

Rules in the classroom are slightly different than the regular copyright laws. If something is being copied or used for educational purposes only, and no money is being made, it can be called Fair Use. To make this easier to understand for myself, I found some examples of Fair Use in the classroom from the Bern Dibner Library of Science and Technology website:

1. A teacher copies one article from a periodical for distribution to the class, but it is recycled after use.
2. A student gives a presentation using pictures he/she did not have direct permission to use. 
3. A teacher shows a copyrighted movie to her class for instructional purposes, but does not charge an admission fee. 
4. A student or teacher used copyrighted music in an instructional presentation. 
5. A teacher copies a Shakespearian play from a copyrighted anthology - the play is in a public domain and not subjected to copyright.