Teaching students about copyright infringement and fair use looks like it can be a daunting task. There seem to be so many guidelines for what you can and can’t use in what circumstances out there for various forms of media that it can get overwhelming. Teachers and students at non-profit institutions have more leeway than the general public when materials are used for educational purposes. There are guidelines that help educators and students to make appropriate decisions as to what is appropriate usage ("Copyright and fair,”). From distilling what I read on Bb copyright fair use, broken down in simple terms is you can spontaneously use small segments of media for short term usage ("Bb copyright fair," 2000). The US Copyright office has documentation in clear English (more understandable than actual statutes written in legalese or congressionalese) that defines various forms of media covered by copyright laws, which protect “original works of authorship”, this means the work itself, not the facts or topic being used ("Copyright basics," 2008). The current guidelines for fair use of copyrighted materials in education are extremely out of date, having been written in 1976. This was long before there was a public internet and the current ease of finding information. It would be easy to say if you didn’t create it or can’t get permission to use it don’t, but that could potentially shortchange our children. There was a document written in 1996 by the Consortium of College and University Media Centers (CCUMC) but according to Copyright 101 for educators: winter 2003 there are some inconsistencies with the the 1996 document and the federal statute from 1976 (Fryer, 2003). There are websites out that could easily be used by teachers to help their students learn about fair use and copyrights. Copyright bay at http://www.stfrancis.edu/content/cid/copyrightbay/index.htm is an interactive look at various points of the issue. Learners can explore different areas of the “bay” to look at topics and questions about appropriate usage of media ("Copyright bay," 2002). Cyberbee copyright at
http://www.cyberbee.com/cb_copyright.swf allows the user to hover a mouse pointer over a cartoon student who asks a question about copyright. The user can then click on the student to get the answer. As is suggested in or week 5 lecture this webpage could easily be used to start a questions and answer session or a team game of who can answer the questions ("Cyberbee copyright," 2002). The Copyright quiz was very interesting; I got an 85, missing 3 questions ("Copyright quiz," ). I had not realized some educational programming had what I would consider an open policy of educational usage like Bill Nye, The Science Guy show mentioned in question number 8, but it makes sense, I believe that is a PBS show and it would be appropriate to be able to use it in the classroom. I got number 12 wrong, but I was thinking about the recent court ruling that you can’t sell an older used version of software, for example on Ebay, the court said something to the effect that when you purchase software you are just purchasing a license to use the software, you don’t actually own it (Parkin, 2010). The other question I missed was the last one concerning the copying of software, the idea of the inability to sue a state institution is not necessarily common knowledge and I thought was kind of a trick question.
The responsibility for teaching your students about internet safety really should have begun at home if there is a family computer connected to the internet. A child could easily get into “trouble” without meaning to. Have you ever done a web search for various animals like a fox or beaver? Even for an adult it can get pretty gross. My son, not long after we hooked up to the internet back in the mid-1990s, got caught up in cascading adult webpages that crashed the family computer. He was terribly embarrassed and did not mention it for a number of years. There are programs various youth organizations that have programs to teach children about internet safety. The Girl Scouts of the USA have programs available to teach girls about the issue. There are awards and the organization has partnered with Microsoft to provide the instruction for girls and parents through a couple of websites Girl Scouts Let Me Know site for Girls and Girl Scouts Let Me Know site for Parents and Adults (Oigaga, 2009). The Boy Scouts of America has a video aimed at their Venturing Crew aged youth (13 and finished 8th grade to age 21) called Personal Safety Awareness that has a number of scenarios, one of which is internet safety and stalking (Personal Safety Awareness). The Netsmartz website has loads of information about internet safety and materials to facilitate teaching are available for free. That’s a really helpful resource ("Online risks," 2010).
Nothing bugs me more than someone who is typing email with their caps lock on. It is like they are yelling full volume. Knowing basic netiquette helps to avoid such faux pas. I would think it would be a kindness to teach children early the basic rules for the internet…such things as not using all caps, remembering the golden rule…don’t flame (making nasty comments), and knowing that it’s easy to be misinterpreted when you are working on-line, there is no vocal inflection or facial expressions in cyberspace ("Safe surfing!- a," 2009).
Cyber-bullying is one of those issues that is making headlines these days. An in person bully is bad enough but when it goes cyber the extent of the bullying get more out of hand much faster. As the parent of a child who was bullied in middle school to the extent of being pushed off the sidewalk in front of a moving car and having rocks thrown at his back leaving years of bruises, I know how devastating it can be to a child. When technology gets into the picture, the bullying takes on a life of its own. On the Netsmartz website there is a link to the RSTeens website at http://www.nsteens.org/ that has resources about cyber-bullying. One page has a number of video clips about real stories of cyber-bullying ("Making safer online," 2010). There are resources for teachers and other people who work with youth at no charge. At the Introduction to bullying advice webpage various aspects of bullying are mentioned including “Posting insulting messages on the internet or by IM (cyberbullying)” and “Sending you offensive phone texts” (Carnell). There is also a guide to privacy and Facebook that guides social networkers in keeping safe and protecting privacy while using social networks. (Carnell, 2009)
As a longtime volunteer for the Boy Scouts of America and Girl Scouts of the USA, I have done lots of research of privacy and internet safety for various badges and patches that have been offered for youth. There are lots of resources available and for younger kids, a brightly colored patch can be a nice carrot to dangle in front of them. The social networks weren’t in existence when Internet Safety programs began to pop up and until relatively recently I didn’t have much of an opinion one way or another. I’ve “been on” Facebook for 18 months and the one time I forgot to sign out someone hacked my yahoo account through my Facebook account. Nothing massive happened but my hijacked email sent out some advertisements from a Mexican pharmacy for Viagra. I guess massive is a relative term, I had to change my email address and apologize for what someone else did. On one of the other social networking sites that I can’t remember, my daughter had a cyber-bullying attack. She dropped her account on that site immediately and had some hurt feelings, but was relatively unscathed. At 20 she was more adept at handling the situation; such a thing could be devastating for someone younger. As for fair use, that has been discussed to death on numerous Scouting forums. I think with some common sense and knowledge of the rules, should be sufficient to successfully deal with the issue. But things change and I guess these days it is essential to keep you with current events.
References:
Bb copyright fair use. (2000). Retrieved from http://www.ccsj.edu/blackboard/BB%20Copyright_Fair_Use.pdf ("Bb copyright fair," 2000)
Personal Safety Awareness. Boy Scouts of America: 2000, DVD.
Copyright and fair use guidelines for teachers. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.techlearning.com/techlearning/pdf/db_area/archives/TL/2002/10/copyright_chart.pdf
("Copyright and fair," )
Copyright basics. (2008, July). Retrieved from http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.pdf
("Copyright basics," 2008)
Copyright bay. (2002). Retrieved from http://www.stfrancis.edu/content/cid/copyrightbay/index.htm ("Copyright bay," 2002)
Copyright quiz. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.csus.edu/indiv/p/peachj/edte230/copyright/quiz.htm ("Copyright quiz," )
Cyberbee copyright. (2002). Retrieved from http://www.cyberbee.com/cb_copyright.swf
("Cyberbee copyright," 2002)
Fryer, W. (2003). Copyright 101 for educators: winter 2003. Retrieved from http://www.wtvi.com/TEKS/02_03_articles/copyright.html (Fryer, 2003)
Carnell, L. (n.d.). Introduction to bullying advice. Retrieved from http://www.bullying.co.uk/index.php/young-people/advice/introduction-to-bullying.html (Carnell)
Carnell, L. (2009). Your guide to facebook privacy and safety. Retrieved from http://www.cyberbullying.co.uk/index.php/facebook/privacy/your-guide-to-facebook-privacy-and-safety.html (Carnell, 2009)
Making safer online choices- real life sotries. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.nsteens.org/TeachingMaterials?tab=RealLifeStories ("Making safer online," 2010)
Newsome, C. (1997). A teacher's guide to fair use and copyright. Retrieved from http://home.earthlink.net/~cnew/research.htm (Newsome, 1997)
Oigaga, M. (2009, February 12). Microsoft turns to girl scouts for internet safety. Retrieved from http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-Turns-to-Girl-Scouts-for-Internet-Safety-104356.shtml
Online risks. (2010). Retrieved from http://origin.www.netsmartz.org/safety/risks.htm
("Online risks," 2010)
Parkin, S. (2010, September 13). Court of appeals ruling threatens sale of used games?. Retrieved from http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/30370/Court_Of_Appeals_Ruling_Threatens_Sale_Of_Used_Games.php (Parkin, 2010)
Safe surfing!- a kid's guide to etiquette on the net. (2009). Retrieved from http://www.kidsdomain.com/brain/computer/surfing/netiquette_kids.html ("Safe surfing!- a," 2009)
How is a non-profit organization able to have different rights to copyrighted works than public institutions? I'll have to really delve into the copyright laws to read up on this, but where did you find out this information? I would think that copyright laws would apply in all settings.
ReplyDeleteI found it interesting, too, that certain videos like "Bill Nye" through the "fair use" policy had a grace period from its release when schools could use it without permission.
The issues of "Fair Use" when applied to some Scouting organizations is the availability of their copyrighted materials for use by Volunteers. Written into materials from the respected National Organizations is information giving Volunteers an "implied license" for use of the materials in a Scouting context.
ReplyDeleteAs for other "fair use" that I mentioned being discussed on Scouting Forums is related to things for example, showing a DVD for a Pack Movie Night or a Girl Scout Troop having a lock-in and showing movies all night...Would this be considered a "Public Performance"? There are attorneys supporting both sides of the issue. My comment was just to point out that there are lots of instances out side of an educational setting that can cause copyright or fair use questions.