Teachers Playing Copycat

I often get so tired of hearing my children verbally copy one another.  Much to my frustration they can play the copycat game for what seems like an eternity.  

While we as teacher’s don’t play the verbal copy cat game I am afraid we often infringe on copyright laws.  Whether we know it or not its still against the law. 

One of the big questions teachers as is, How do I know if the material is copyrighted?

According to Bright Hub Education unless the material states that it is not copyrighted it is.  Over a decade ago one could look at the page and see the “all rights reserved” not on the bottom signifying it as copy written.  Those days are long gone.  The instant a piece is made the material should be considered to be copy written.

The Copy Wright Act created in 1976 was made to encourage more creators of content and literary pieces for the greater good of society.  There are five exclusive rights to the creators of their work:

1. The right to reproduce (make copies).
2. The right to create derivative works (supplemental pieces based on the original).
3. The right to sell, lease, or rent copies of the work to the public.
4. The right to perform the work publicly.
5. The right to display the work publicly.

With that being said it seems like all educators are in violation when they show education films, distribute photocopies or articles, or use images in their presentations.

Thankfully, educators have a special exception to the Copyright Act called the “fair use rule”.  It allows for limited use of someone’s work for things such as research, teaching, and scholarship.  Before we teachers go crazy thinking we now have the green light to use everything we see.  We must proceed with a yellow light and have caution. 

The term “fair use” is pretty blurry and is considered on a case by case basis.  The Court looks at four factors:

1. The purpose of the use: if it is for non profit educational purposes you are generally ok.
2. The nature of the copyrighted work.
3. The amount or portion of the copyrighted work used.
4. The effect of the use or the potential for the copyrighted work.

Perhaps the most important question for educators is about photocopying.  There are specific guidelines for that as well from House Report 94-1476, which helps to clarify the minimum standards of educational fair use.

Here are a few of the highlights:

• Teachers can do most anything they want if they are making a single copy to use for classroom purposes.
• Teachers can make multiple copies of poems that are less than 250 words, writing that is less than 2,500 words (or an excerpt).
• Teachers can only copy one diagram/picture from a single work.  This appears to be an issue that most teacher’s do not follow albeit unknowingly.
• Mass copies can only occur up to nine time per class during their term. 
• Copying should only be done if it would be unreasonable to take the time to get the permission to use the work.

In the upcoming years the issues of making multiple classroom copies will fade being replaced by use of the author or illustrators online work.  As schools continue to move towards a one to one device ratio I expect further clarification on what students can use during their presentations.  I have been able to find a website called Teaching Copyright that could be used as an excellent tool to help teach students appropriate lessons about thy copyright laws.  If I was in a project driven classroom where I knew the students were going to be utilizing pre-existing information without the teacher being able to control what was copied or not; I might teach a lesson or two to cover myself and to properly inform the students how to document the use of information and what fair use is.

For those teachers that absolutely love an authors works it would be worthwhile to share a letter to the author informing them of your love for their works and requesting permission to use it in your classrooms.  Not only have you gotten permission but you may have started a relationship in which you could further utilize the author for things like a skype session with students to ask questions at a later time.

For further information on Fair Use and Copy Right laws check out this excellent resource which was the primary website use to research the topic of fair use).