On Copyright

September 06, 2017
By Unknown
1 Comments

To be completely honest, before today, I knew approximately nothing about copyright. I believe in the past I had heard that all new materials were automatically copyrighted to their owner, but if you had asked me to write a blog post about it, I'd probably look a lot like this baby:

Inkles, P. (2011, September 15). Business Baby
Pointing [Photograph]. Retrieved from https://flic.kr/p/e2QMS5

That is, blindly poking around and not really knowing what I'm talking about. After today, however, I know more. I would even say I probably know more than most of the teachers I had growing up!

In my days in school, I often saw stretched clipart, unsourced photos and drawings I'm confident my teachers didn't draw sprinkled through out my school work. I think a lot of people, including some of my teachers, have been living their life under the impression that if they can find it on Google, they can use it. In reality, it isn't acceptable (or legal!) to go around using any image you might happen to find online, as they may not be licensed for redistribution. Additionally, I was unaware that it is breaking copyright laws to duplicate things such as resource packets for students when the original material is considered "single use only" - I have definitely seen photocopied question booklets before in my life.

A way to avoid accidentally breaking the law when looking for a way to spice up a PowerPoint is to search for redistributable resources. Many photos, audio clips, videos and more use a Creative Commons license to specify what can and cannot be done with the material in plain language. Some images can simply be redistributed with attribution (that is, proper credit), while others are allowed to be modified, and even shared with no attribution needed!

If I were teaching now, I think it would be most important for my to let my students know that you can't simply download any image (or sound clip, etc) you want and use it without permission or credit. I would teach them how to use the Creative Commons search to find materials for projects, as well as show them how to properly cite the resources they use. Proper citations deserve a huge thumbs up.