Copyright Activity 
Read each of the following scenarios. Select two
of them and write a paragraph for each that explains the law and if the
described activity is allowable or not.
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,
According
to the “Fair Use Guidelines for Educational Multimedia” outlined on the
Education World website, students are allowed to use these copyrighted images
for their classroom assignment, but there are certain limitations on this
use. For example, the students must
credit the source from which they received the copyrighted material, they must
display the copyright notice, they must document that this material is being
used in accordance with the fair use exemption of the U.S. Copyright Law, only
2 copies of the project may be made (one for the creator, and another for the
school library files), and secondary students are also limited in the amount of
copyrighted material they are permitted to use within the project. Students may use up to 3 minutes of a
copyrighted motion media work, may use up to 5 images/photographs by one
artist, but no more than 15 images from a single published work. The power point presentations with
copyrighted images may also be displayed on the internet for up to 15
days. The assignment given in this
example can be legally performed in the classroom as long as these guidelines
are followed. I would encourage my
students to use the materials they find online to enhance their activities, but
I would insist on instructing them on the importance of copyright laws,
documentation, and protecting their work before beginning on an activity like
this one. Once everyone learns the
rules, it is much easier to borrow and create on the web and in the classroom.
2.
Mr. Jamweimer,
the parent of one of our most intellectual students, has paid to download a
wonderful computer software program for his little Einstein. Mr. Jamweimer wants "our school" to be the best and
sends a copy of the download file to be used by the students on the computers
at school. P.S. all of the kids use it and win Nobel prizes in science,
literature, physics, chemistry, and playground.
Unfortunately, it sounds as though Mr. Jamweimer
has broken some serious copyright laws.
According to Education World “fair use” applies only to software that
has been purchased. This means that