Copyright
Heather Owings
SLM 521
Fall 2003
Copyright
Copyright
As an English major, I was (what I consider) well-informed about plagiarism. However, I was amazed by what I didn't know about copyrights. A short list of facts that I learned, not to mention mistakes that I have made: that merely quoting or citing the author of a copyrighted work does not satisfy copyright laws; that "it's for educational purposes" or "I'm a student" are not iron-clad fair use defenses; and that linking to an interior page of a web site bypasses copyright information, which can violate copyright law, and should be avoided. Oops! I have done all three in the name of education!
Now that I know better, I will use my new-found expertise to explain copyright laws as they pertain to the following scenarios:
(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??
Students making Power
Point presentations using graphics from Sports Illustrated, ESPN or the Rock
Music Hall of Fame would be allowed to use those copyrighted graphics under
the Fair Use
Guidelines for Educational Media as long as the graphics were:
(a)lawfully acquired,(b)students used no more that 5 images by an artist or
photographer and (c)were used to fulfill an educational requirement or were
included in a portfolio as an example of academic work (it could then be used
at job or grad school interviews).
Additionally, students would need to: (d)credit the sources; (e)provide copyright
information and copyright notice; and (f)state on the first page of the Power
Point presentation that the copyrighted materials are included under the fair
use exemption of the U.S. Copyright Law.
As for storage guidelines: the student can (g) make no more than two
copies of the project, one to keep and one for the media center;(h) use the
project over a secure network for 15 days, after which it may be placed in the
media center for on-site use; and (i) other students may not make copies of
the project.
This one is a bit complicated. If the web page is a personal or school page, none of the "glittering wonderfulness" can be used. The Fair Use Guidelines for Educational Multimedia plainly state that the "wonderfulness" can only be used by teachers for: (a)face-to-face instruction, (b)directed self-study, or (c)distance learning. Additionally, the Web use must be restricted to a protected network (one that requires a password or PIN). So while the "glittering wonderfulness" could be used for curriculum-based study, it cannot be used to simply jazz up your web site.
If used by a teacher or student, strictly for educational purposes (a lesson or an assignment), it would need to follow the same guidelines listed in the first scenario above (a-i).
Under the Fair Use Guidelines, I, as a student, am using multimedia for a project created as part of a learning activity for a nonprofit educational institution (Guideline 1.3). I have written a letter to lawfully acquire the copyrighted works from the Marvel© web site (2.1) I am displaying this as an educational assignment and may later use it in my own personal portfolio (3.1). I have used one image, the Fantastic Four® name, and have linked to the first page of the Marvel® web site (4.2.2 and 4.2.4). Additionally, in my letter I asked permission to publish my project (for a limited time) on the McDaniel web site (5.3). And lastly, I have acknowledged the sources and displayed the copyright ownership information at the bottom of my first (and only) page (6.2).
As far as the lesson plan I used as a basis for my plan, it is not copyrighted. The web site CyberQuest! is maintained by the Tulare County Office of Education in California. It falls under the short list of works that are not copyrighted by the U.S. Copyright Office because it includes: Ideas, procedures, methods, systems, processes, concepts, principles, discoveries, or devices, as distinguished from a description, explanation, or illustration.