While I was unable to attend the copyright session "live" Wednesday night because being a music teacher in the spring means that you live at play practice, I enjoyed downloading and watching later on. I think that this should be a required part of our degree program early on - it has frustrated me throughout the program to see people use copyrighted material over and over, while others are very careful. It's such a confusing topic that I understand copyright is difficult to follow - I just wish we had been more clearly educated early on.
I teach copyright extensively in my music technology class, where we create and publish media to the Internet every day. I feel that it's my responsibility in that teaching role to show my students how to use creative commons and to understand what they can and cannot fairly publish to the Internet.
In response to Joe's first Wimba on copyright, I think that all of the "automatic" copyrights get confusing, such as the example of a poem written by a student. It seems clear that if you really are concerned about copyright, that you need to make your work visible (like posting online) or to take the extra step of obtaining legal copyright.
I really enjoyed Joe's conversation about common copyright myths, using a checklist created by Brad Templeton. Thankfully, I didn't feel that much of this information was new to me. I think that as a music teacher and musician I am particularly sensitive to and aware of coyright issues. However, I recognize that many of them are common misconceptions, especially among my students. I will enjoy repeating some of Joe's examples and sharing Brad's list with my own students next fall (I'll give you credit Joe, don't worry!). Furthermore, I'm interested in sharing some of the documentary that he shared with my students (Good Copy, Bad Copy). I think that as I try to make my students "media savvy" that these topics are important - we start our tempo unit with a music mash-up project that I love because it allows students to use their own music, but brings in a lot of copyright issues as kids manipulate another artists' work. Adding parts of this video to that unit will give us a good ground for conversation.
As an FSO student and middle school teacher this year, I have e-mailed and obtained permission from several artists to use their work in my curriculum, almost always with successful results, so I encourage people to heed Joe's "11th misconception" and not to give up and declare that there is no hope for using copyrighted work for your great idea.
Image obtained obtained under Creative Commons license fromhttp://geekandpoke.typepad.com/geekandpoke/2006/10/copyright_and_a.html
I replied:
I often wonder as I'm printing a class set of a newspaper article whether I'm following the letter of the law in reproducing the materials. I think the public is generally misinformed and under-informed when it comes to fair use and copyright issues, and it would be great to see more "Copyright for Dummies" type information out there for us not so savvy folks
6:14 PM
And wow, the whole top half of my comment got left off, awesome.
What I was saying was that I really appreciate your expertise in the field of copyright, and your acknowledgment that many of us, particularly those in education, really don't have a clear understanding of what copyright and fair use is. Most people know the basics like, don't call someone's work your own, and don't reproduce another's whole work without giving them credit/royalties, but the lines get so blurred. Many of the copyright laws specifically refer to print media, and as digital media has and continues to evolve, I think that people will become even more confused on copyright issues.
6:17 PM