Connie Lippenholz
LS521, Su02
7/12/02
Copyright Activity
Copyright, Piracy, and Ethics
Scenario: 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: Although this teacher did not focus the students towards sites geared to finding graphics/clipart specifically for these projects, I believe the students' use of commercial graphics would be allowed under the Fair Use guidelines for Multimedia projects. However, under these same guidelines, the teacher would have to ensure that the creators of those graphics are credited and the ownership information is provided as part of the project documentation. In addition, each project would have to include a notice "that certain materials are included under the fair use exemption of the U.S. Copyright Law and have been prepared according to the multimedia fair use guidelines and are restricted from further use" (as listed in the Education World article linked below.) The teacher must also ensure that the completed projects be retained according to the appropriate guidelines.
Scenario: 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. Mrs. Urdvardy, a music teacher, downloads MP3 files from the Web and uses them to instruct her students in the various kinds of music. She allows students to copy the files and take them home, listen to them and complete a worksheet.
Response: In the first part of this scenario, I would think both the books and the website would list a disclaimer as to how much of the material can be printed/copied for classroom use. Therefore the copyright application would depend on that statement. If the pages are posted on the website for teachers to print and use, I don't believe there is a copyright infringement, provided Houghtin Mifflin is credited for their work. The same would hold true for the book... I have seen teacher resource books that specifically state that teachers may make copies to utilize in their lessons, so if that type of disclaimer exists, I don't see a problem with copying enough for 27 students. However, if the internet resource were not available, and the book is intended to be used as a workbook by one individual, then providing copies to 27 students from only 20 books would in my mind be a violation of copyright law.
In the second part of this scenario, I believe the use of MP3 files in the classroom may be an application of "Fair Use", however letting the students take copies home would seem to be a violation of the copyright law & Fair Use guidelines described in the Education World article.
For more information...
About copyright law:
Educators and students:
Kids: