Week
One Reading: Copyright Issues
Copyright
laws seem to have many grey areas. I am always uncertain and try to err
on the safe side. My school district was in a copyright dispute with a
publishing company a few months ago. The following link from the Toledo
Blade newspaper explains what is going on:
The
claim states “Align, Assess, Achieve entered into a copyright license agreement
with TPS for company books and materials that provide teacher guidance in
meeting the Common Core education standards… TPS could only use the works to
prepare pacing guides for the teachers for whom the district had bought the
company's book. Despite the agreement, according to the complaint, TPS in
August had teachers transcribe the copyrighted work in its entirety. The
district later posted the copies on its intranet, making it available to all
teachers, the company claims. TPS falsely attributed authorship of the
unauthorized electronic versions of the AAA copyrighted works to the teachers
the district employed as scriveners to steal AAA's intellectual property."
The
attorney for my district is quoted as saying, "We don't believe there's
any validity to the claim.”
Teachers
were not given any further information as to how the dispute was settled.
However, the pacing guides were removed from the employee intranet for a few
months before being put back up, so we assume the claim has been
dismissed.
In
searching for more information on how printed material can be used by a
classroom teacher, I found the following source helpful: “Reproduction of
Copyrighted Works by Educators and Librarians” This article can be found at the
following link:
This
is a wordle incorporating text from the article:
I
found the Good Copy / Bad Copy video to be very fascinating. I think the
Nigerian filmmaker summed up how copyright laws are to be followed succinctly:
“If
you don’t have permission, you can’t use it.”
I
learned that it is all about getting permission, not about money at all.
I often wonder about showing movies at school. I have seen schools who host
family movie nights. They rent a DVD, and project it in the gym for
families to watch together. I am hesitant to participate; are they
breaking copyright laws by showing the video in a large gathering like that,
with over 100 people viewing? Most teachers reply it is OK because they
are not charging for it. I question if they have permission.
Another
quote I pondered from Good Copy / Bad Copy was “We don’t want to look at this
from the negative angle…copyright is not about stopping people from using your
work, but getting them to use your work legally and giving you money for what
they have done with your work.”
I
think that makes so much sense. I am not opposed to sharing lessons I
have created with others, in fact I believe collaboration is the most crucial
tool for teachers today. However, I do want to be recognized for the work
I have done in creating these lessons. A site like TeachersPayTeachers.com allows for
teachers to share lessons, be recognized as the creator, and make money for the
intellectual work provided.
My Comment:
This reminds me when I (I think you too), made cassette tapes
from music of different LP's for our enjoyment. I used to do tapes for my
friends in case that they could not afford the record, or if the record was out
of print. Was I violating copyright law? Could be or could be not. I didn't
profit from any of those tapes. In case of your movies. was there an instructional
or educational purposes for showing the movie? Or was for enjoyment only.
On education, we can use an extract or a portion of the movie,
but we must credit the source. Same with text and audio. Now, in online
education, are online courses copyrighted? If you have a professor/teacher that
builds a course using content that he/she wrote (book, thesis), is that course
protected by copyright? There's a term called "work for hire". This
term has created a lot of issues and conflicts where I work and one of the
biggest reason why some professors are reluctant to teach online. The
university has ownership of the material worked by students and professors. Can
the music business and film making industry adapt this method to the artists? I
hope not.
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