Copyright Clarity

Copyright is one of those things that has always been completely confusing and daunting, mainly because the threat of legal consequences hangs over our heads and teaching licenses if we cross into illegal use of materials. In my first five years of teaching in a different school system, I attended trainings, NTTI conferences, VSTE, and other events where I learned about copyright and usage rules. Some of the rules were absolutely confusing, but they reflected the technology we had at the time – VHS recordings and non-digital copies of shows and video clips. I remember some complicated formulas, including you could use a show if it had been publicly broadcast within 10 days on a channel, or something… Needless to say, I couldn’t keep track of when shows were televised and ended up never using those videos, despite the fact that they illustrated my lessons perfectly.

Here’s a Stanford summarization of the Fair Use videotaping rules. https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/faqs/videotaping/  Yep – still confusing! From these experiences, I have generally steered away from using videos not on Safari Montage. However, I have been expanding and using They Might Be Giants’ “Here Comes Science” songs to illustrate states of matter and the scientific method. I bought those DVDs, so they’re mine. From the Stanford website, I actually learned that PBS is generally more permissible when it comes to their programs being used for educational purposes, which makes me happy. Odd Squad and other shows are fantastic, bite-sized chunks of entertaining education that draw kids in, so hooray for PBS! You can find recent episodes of their shows on www.pbs.org, and I definitely use those. I also remember hearing horror stories about Disney, so I still steer clear of those unless they’re on Safari Montage.

The book, Copyright Clarity, has many great examples to demonstrate fair use. An important quote from the book summarizes one of the main ideas of what Renee Hobbs is teaching us: “Fair use cannot be reduced to a checklist. Fair use requires that people think.” Reasonableness is up to an individual’s judgement, so each of us may have a different interpretation on “fair use,” but we may each choose to use our own materials in our classrooms, and that’s fine. The questions we need to ask relate to how we are transforming the original materials to decide if it’s a fair use when we use materials to create something new. First, what is the purpose of our using those materials. Second, what is the nature of the work. Third, how much of the original work are we using? Finally, will our use of materials negatively impact the creator’s market impact? Having these four fair-use questions to ask ourselves (and teach our students to ask themselves) is liberating. It is up to us to decide If our use is fair-use or copyright infringement. It’s also interesting that different industries with interests in copyright are out there trying to “teach” consumers, educators, and students about copyright issues. Hmmm… all the more reason to teach our students to think for themselves, be ethical decision-makers, and do their own research!

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