Michael Rubin

February 25, 2005

SLM 521

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.

In this situation, the principal would be wrong. As a teacher, you are allowed to create a link to another site, in this case the David Letterman Web page, and that not be considered piracy. According to www.educationworld.com , “copying and posting links that contain descriptions of the linked sites, although posting links that contain only a URL and the title of the site is generally acceptable.” In this situation all we have done is created a link to Mr. Letterman’s page. We have not broken any law because we did not post a link that contained a description of the site.

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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.

What Mrs. Urdvardy is doing is not allowed, she is breaking a copyright law. www.educationworld.com clearly states that “A single copy of a sound recording of copyrighted music may be made from sound recordings owned by an educational institution or an individual teacher for the purpose of constructing aural exercises or examinations and may be retained by the educational institution or individual teacher.” It clearly states in that ruling that if copyrighted music is downloaded, then it must remain in the hands of the teacher, and is not allowed to leave the classroom. The only way that this action would be permissible would be if Mrs. Urdvardy was paying to download a copy of each song for each student.