Knowing Copyright from Wrong

Week Six

Reflecting on a recent presentation in regards to the copyright and fair use laws, one can easily become confused with the many conditional applications which apply to student and teachers in the 21st century classrooms. With the augmentation of computers and the internet use as a highly interactive educational tool, the capacity to violate fair use laws is rapidly expanding. Teachers need to become well versed in the legal use of copyrighted materials. They also need to communicate the importance of fair use to their students, as they embark on google searching the multitude of images and information which are easily accessible on the web. Just because one can easily right click to download (or swiftly command/C) does not entitle everyone to use freely what one sees.

The most ethical appropriation of images from the web is to to take advantage one of the many creative commons websites available. Some of these resources do not even require crediting the content creator. Creative Commons is a non-profit which was founded to expand accessible online available resources by allowing free conditional licenses. The Creative Commons is considers one of the leaders in the copyleft movement, which permits free distribution and modifications of work.

As always, sources of writing information should be sited and referenced with full credits being acknowledged. Students should be taught to put writing into their own words and keep direct quotes to a maximum of 10% of the total, with authors being fully credited and referenced. Teachers need to also be cognizant that online classroom content can be in violation of copyright infringement, if materials are not meeting all of the fair use requirements. For more information visit:

https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ21.pdf

https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/academic-and-educational-permissions/non-coursepack/