Fair Use
The topic I have been assigned is fair use.
- Fair use is a copyright principle based on the belief that the public is entitled to freely use portions of copyrighted materials for purposes of commentary and criticism - See more at: http://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/#sthash.onebvczO.dpuf
- http://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use
- The rationale behind Fair Use is to help protect freedom of speech. If someone wants to make a comment about anything that is copyrighted, a song or a movie per se, the Fair Use law allows them to do so and use a portion of what they are talking about without getting in trouble for using copy-righted information. For example, if someone wanted to make a negative comment about the movie "The Wizard of Oz" and wanted to use a quote or a clip of that movie to make their point, under the Fair Use law, they are allowed to without the people that hold "The Wizard of Oz"'s copy right coming after them.
- http://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use
- IP theft has a negative effect on employment in all copyright industries. It is estimated that the U.S. economy loses 373,375 jobs annually due to piracy.
- The U.S. Trade Representative estimated that the U.S. economy lost between $200 and $250 billion in 2005 due to piracy.
- http://thefightagainstinternetpiracy.weebly.com/statistics.html
- http://www.edutopia.org/blog/film-festival-copyright-fair-use
- The link that I gave takes you to a page with different videos about fair use and copyright information to use in the classroom. Each video is about 6 minutes long and meant for middle school students. It gives the definition of fair use and copyright and also gives students situations where they look at if fair use is fair
- This next link is an entire lesson plan based on teaching copyright and fair use. There are links to different sources that have info about copyright/fair use, tests and quizzes on the material, as well as ideas on how to relate it back to your students
I think this is an important topic, especially when it relates to the idea of plagiarism which is a huge issue in all schools. It is crazy to see the statistics though, I would have never thought that there was that big of damage due to this issue! My question for you would be what do you think is the schools role in the fair use issue? Also, what grade do you think would be an appropriate age to start having those conversations?
ReplyDeleteHi Courtney,
DeleteI think that it is definitely important to start teaching this in schools! I actually never thought about it dealing with the plagiarism issue, so I'm really glad you brought that up! I think that it should be dealt with as early as possible, especially in districts with a lot of technology use. I would start in 2nd or 3rd grade and just give basic information, such as what fair use is and why it is important to us (how it relates to plagiarism and cheating or stealing someone else's work). I would then progress the information each year. By the time they are in high school, doing quite a bit of work on computers and getting information from online, the students should have a good idea of what Fair Use is and how to avoid getting in trouble for copyright laws. By that point, I would share statistics and how it is affecting our economy or those whose information is being stolen. I think the school needs to be the informative one because I don't believe parents are teaching their students about this. Personally, I had never heard of this before doing this research and I'm 22 years old!
Personally, I had no idea that "fair use" was even a thing until I was assigned to research it as well. I guess it makes sense, but it's also kind of interesting how we have created loopholes like that...
ReplyDeleteDid you watch that fair use video in the folder? Although that may have been rather informational, I almost couldn't stand it. The creator definitely made his point, but I almost got a headache!
I know you talk about how much the economy has lost due to piracy, but a lot of the websites and articles that I looked at said that fair use has actually increased the economy, which makes sense to me. I think it's important to make the distinction between piracy and fair use, yes?
Hi Nikki,
DeleteI had no idea either! I just thought to myself how crazy it is that no one ever mentions it in schools! I did watch the video, but only part of it. Like you said, it kind of drove me crazy! It was an interesting concept, but kind of hard to follow.
I'm glad you brought up the point about the economy. I think your comments are exactly right. I think piracy and fair use are two distinctly different things and should be treated as such. My statistic may have been looking at piracy rather than fair use and that may have been the difference!
That was the point...it was an awful video.
DeleteAs for your distinction, not really. Downloading a song illegally prevents the artist from making money for their intellectual property. You're not selling the song for profit, but you're causing someone else to lose profit. The same for fair use in the classroom. If you copy a whole book for your class, that's one book that the publisher didn't sell (times a class of 30). Regardless if the artist is struggling and the publishing company makes millions on textbooks, the purpose of these laws is to make sure that people get paid for their intellectual property.
Do you think that the Fair Use law was also created to protect the artistic rights of people creating something new out of something that already exists? After all, in most literature there was most likely someone else who write a similar story before them that gave this new writer inspiration? Would that be artistic license, or would it be copying? Perhaps this is where the grey area of Copyright law comes in?
ReplyDeleteHi Erica,
DeleteI think you're exactly right. I believe it goes back to the whole "Happy Birthday" predicament. How can someone have a copyright on such a well known song that has been around for hundreds of years? If these laws didn't exist, we would be getting in trouble for copy right left and right. Especially movie critics or anyone posting lyrics on their facebook statuses! But I think you're definitely right about the grey area. Sometimes, it's simple to say, "Oh that person wasn't trying to steal those lyrics, they were just using them to show how they're feeling," but what about movie critics? Sometimes, the critics are rude and if there weren't laws, I would definitely try and sue someone being rude about a movie I made! ha!
That's why we have public domain laws that come into effect after a certain amount of time. It's the same as the drug industry, as generic medicines can be produced after a certain time so that investors can profit initially from supporting the development of a drug, but after a time other companies can produce it (for less) to encourage access.
DeleteAs a music educator, in a secondary setting most of the music being taught in the classroom is copyrighted material. For every copy of a song or piece of music, there has to be a paid original score for the student. A lot of schools copy music so that the students can write on the paper and if it is damaged or lost, the school will not actually lose it because there is a paid original for every copy.
ReplyDeleteI think students should be very aware of these copyright laws in a music discipline, but also in other disciplines. If students are using a clip of a film as an example, like "The Wizard of Oz" in your post, they should know why they are able to use a clip.
How do you think this can be taught to students? In my mind, I think students will be able to understand fair copy right by knowing what they cannot do; such as piracy and illegal downloading. Or in music, copying music without a paid copy. Do you have any other ideas?
Hi Adelaide,
ReplyDeleteI think you're exactly right. Think about all the trouble people would get into for simply posting lyrics to their Facebook statuses or singing "Happy Birthday" at birthday parties, if we didn't have Fair Use laws. I think students should be taught the basics of this at an early age, especially in a music or art classroom. When copying the concept of someone else's work, it gets tricky and students need to know what is right and wrong so they don't get in trouble. I would even start with my second graders right now. I would introduce the basic concepts and relate it back to plagiarism and cheating, something they are familiar with. Hopefully, the school district could add each year until they get the full knowledge of what Fair Use is.
Amie,
DeleteI like your idea of connecting the dots of fair use early in education, so that students have a schema to keep building upon in future years with fair use and other online safety topics. That would be a great way to educate students through out their school career, and more spaced out so that the information can sink in and be utilized in their lives and school work. Great idea!