Copyright Laws

I had no idea about the extent of copyright laws for teachers. It all makes sense that people who create and have ideas want to be paid and receive credit for them.

THe Stanford site and the Educator's Fair Use site provided details that I did not know previously. Public domain belongs to the public so this is fair game. And it makes sense that if one has permission or a legal exception on can use a particular work. However, it is the fair use policy that I need more clarity on. I thought that when resources were used in the name of education there was an exception to the rule. I learned today that there are stipulations with regard to what one makes copies of, in the case of poetry there is a 250-word limit, for prose, short stories, essays, and web articles 500 words maybe copied. The big lesson is not to copy something in its entirety, just enough to provide a teaser so that students will want to go back and find the work for themselves. The internet is helpful in providing resources so that we do not have to make copies and students can access information on their own after they are provided with websites.

As I read Keeping it Legal, I thought about how for our school’s website we should only use pictures taken by students and artwork designed by students. As a technology school, it would be good for students to experience copyrighting their own work.