Copy Rights and Creative Commons

     The responsibility as a teacher to understand and use images with copyright, public domain, and creative commons licenses is very important, especially when considering the consequences. Let's first talk about what copyright is.

What is a copyright?

     Copyright is a Federal regulation that is part of the U.S. Constitution, found in Article 1 Section 8, which allows Congress to adopt both copyright laws and patent laws, encourage creators to continue to make new work and expand upon previous work by providing the possibility of financial gain, and finally Article 1 Section 8 requires that the rights eventually expire. 

So as a copyright owner you can:

• Reproduce the work (make copies)
• Derive works based on the original
• Distribute the work
• Perform it publicly
• And broadcast the work publicly by means of digital transmission

For more information on copyright and to answer some questions you might have, please take a look at the U.S. Copyright Office FAQ page. 

And once you create something it is automatically protected by copyright. but for extra measure you can register your creation with the U.S. Copyright Office. There is a fee, however, but you can take a look at this document for more information. 

Copy right laws cover seven categories:

1. Literary works
2. Musical works
3. Dramatic works
4. Pantomimed and choreographed works
5. Pictorial, graphics, and sculptural works
6. Motion pictures and audiovisual works
7. Sound recordings

According to A Teacher's Guide to Fair Use and Copyright by Cathy Newsome,  "A copyrighted work may be used or copied under certain conditions: 

• public domain -- work belonging to the public as a whole--government documents and works, works with an expired copyright or no existing protection, and works published over 75 years ago; 
• permission -- prior approval for the proposed use by the copyright owner; 
• legal exception -- use constitutes an exemption to copyright protection--parody, for example; 
• or fair use -- use for educational purposes according to certain restrictions" (© 1997)

Newsome goes on to describe the four standards for determining fair use exemption which are the purpose of use, nature of the work, portion or extent of the material used, and the effect on marketability.

This is an interesting video which illustrates how one teacher at West Side Collaborative Middle School in New York City is incorporating fair use into the classroom.

Public Domain

     Copy right is not an issue when information belongs to public domain. Information and material belongs to public domain when the work is not covered by copyright law, the copyright is expired, is a government work, or the work is dedicated to the public domain. 

Usually when something is not covered by copyright law it means that the overarching idea or concept cannot be copyrighted. If the copyright expires or the work was created before copyright laws existed then the work belongs to public domain. When a copyrighted work is enacted into law that work then becomes part of the public domain. And when a work is dedicated to the public domain it usually means the work holds a Creative Commons License. 

Creative Commons

This video quickly describes what a creative commons license is:

As an artist I will definitely be looking into getting a Creative Commons License for my works, and this next video explains a little bit more about how that would work.

If you are interested in Creative Commons, check out their website for more information.

Digital Content in Education

     When it comes to copyright law and teaching, teachers are under a moral obligation to practice integrity and trustworthiness when it comes to using copyrighted material. While there is a little bit more freedom for teachers and students alike when it comes to using copyrighted material for educational purposes, it is still vitally important that we educate not only ourselves, but also our students about how to safely, considerately, and legally incorporate copyrighted material into our education.

The video below is a good introduction for teachers when incorporating copyrighted work into their lessons:

For a great example on teaching copyright laws to students and fellow educators, please take a look at Teachingcopyright.org.

Conspiracy Theory Time!

     On a side note, keep an eye out for a future blog post I want to write surrounding the rumors that you forfeit some or all of your rights when you post work to DeviantArt whatever information you delete on Facebook you forfeit you rights to and becomes Facebook's intellectual property, how Twitter has claim to your tweets, and how Instagram could also partially own your photos. 

If anyone has any cited information on this please feel free to share it with me.