Maggie Kartanowicz
Copyright Activity
The Copyright Law applied to two scenarios:
Scenario 1
A teacher in your school (who has a really rowdy bunch of monsters) makes an agreement with them that they learn how to make power point presentations on sports, war, hunting, rock music and such. She lets them get graphics from anywhere on the Internet. Sites such as Sports Illustrated, ESPN. DOD, Rock Music Hall of Fame. They make great presentations and become great kids. What are the copyright implications??
Response: The copyright laws were not infringed upon because the children used the graphics solely for their presentations. They did not put them back on the web or distribute them to others without permission from the copywriter. According to The Fair Use Guidelines for Multimedia Projects, the students may use the copyrighted materials they obtained for their presentations, but the following restrictions apply: the projects may only be used in the class for which they were created, they may be included in personal academic portfolios, and they may be used for graduate school and job interviews. The guidelines also say that on the opening page of their presentations and on any print material, a notice that some materials are included under the fair use exemption of the U.S. Copyright Law. The students must credit their sources, including the author, title, publisher, and the date and place of publication.
Scenario 2
Mr. Hamer is tutoring for the functional writing test out of a copyrighted series of work books from Houghtin Mifflin. He has 27 students but only 20 books were purchased for his class. The same material is available at the HM web page. She prints enough pages for her kids each morning for today's class.
Response: This would be legal, according to fair use policy for teachers. The copyright laws state that it is legal for copyrighted materials to be copied and used in class, for face to face instruction for material necessary for class that day. The material is not allowed to be distributed to anyone else or taken home. Mr. Hamer is preparing the students for a state mandated proficiency functional test. He is required to have his students ready for the test. He already purchased 20 books out of the school budget, and is lacking the funds to purchase more books. To create equal opportunity for all students he is permitted to acquire 7 more copies.