Mindy Lawson

SLM 521

02/25/04

COPYRIGHTS

1. You create a web link to the CBS - David Letterman Web page, the Right to Life and the Right to Choice web pages on your school's home page. Your principal instructs you to remove them from the schools links.

Links to web pages are not copyrighted. Anyone can legally use a link on their site to another unless you are intentionally linking to only one page of a website in order to misrepresent the author. There are sites that have expressed their desire to not be used in links. Courts have ruled in favor of the sites in this situation. None of the three mentioned sites have this request and assuming the links were made to the sites homepages, the links would not be illegal.

However, I’m not sure why any teacher would put these particular links on a school web page. I cannot think of any reason to add either the Right to Life and Right to Choice web links to a school website. There is a fine line between school and the issues of these webpages. As a future elementary teacher, I would be offended by these links being on a school website. These links may be more appropriate for high school, but I would need to hear a very strong argument for that. As a parent, I would be extremely unhappy with my child’s school at any age. As far as the David Letterman page goes, there is a reason this show is on long after any student’s bedtime.

If I added these links, I would have to ask myself, “What was I thinking?”,and then I would be thankful I still had a job.

1. 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.

According to Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 107 - Limitations on exclusive rights (Fair Use), any reproduction of copyrighted material used for teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use) is not violating a copyright. Therefore, those students winning Nobel prizes should thank Mr. Jamweimer in their acceptance speech. Maybe, the school could name the media center for him.

As long as the material is used in the classroom (media center, computer room, etc.), the school is doing nothing illegal. However, if the students were allowed to take the programs home, the school would no longer be considered under Fair Use.