Copyright and Fair Use

1. What copyright issues surprised you?

--you can only use 10% of a song for any reason.
--you can only keep a broadcast tv show for 10 school days.
Both of these limits seem so arbitrary. With Beethoven's 9th, you could listen to the best 7:40, but with a Ramones song, it'd be more like 20 seconds.

On the other hand, you may use a purchased movie for instructional purposes as long as you want to. This was a load off my mind because I use around ten films in my US History class. They are incredibly valuable resources. The kids hate me by the end because I'm the king of the pause button.

2. How will you make sure your projects do not violate copyright laws?

--I've bookmarked the two charts that were assigned for us to read. And I'll continue to keep up to date on this as the rules are bound to change re tech in the classroom.

3. How will you teach your students about copyright (appropriate to your grade level). State your grade level.

11th and 12th grade. For some reason, just about every kid thinks they can use any photo, song, film clip, or paragraph, as long as they credit the author in the credits. The fair use websites that we've learned about will be permanent links on my webpage. I will have to add a portion of my rubric to reflect fair use items. Right now, most of them just say "photos are properly sourced."