This week was all about copyright! I expected it to be mega
boring and technical, but I was actually pretty engaged. Hobbs’ book talked
about copyright in a very relatable way that wasn’t too boring or over my head.
I tend to be the type of teacher that just copies everything
a lot. My kids tend to lose papers, or leave them at home, and there’s not way
I’m giving them the original copies to write all over. I never really
considered it to be ‘breaking the rules’ – my school owns the full pieces of
music; I just don’t trust 10 year olds to return all original copies with no
markings on them.
I like the way that Hobbs talks about fair use. It made me
feel better about all the copies I do make! She says to think about it like: is
the way I’m using this preventing the author from making money? As long as the
answer to that is no, then you’re probably fine. Are you changing the integrity
of the original work in terms of things like audience, purpose, and amount? As
long as that answer is yes, then you’re still probably fine.
Copyright seems like just a really big gray area. Fair Use
is up to interpretation, so there’s no set of rules that we can put up on a
poster on a wall for everyone to follow.
This book really changed the way I think about copyright. I think I, too, used to be the same way - the "copy and use with impunity" teacher. When I taught 7th graders how to edit videos, I'd let them use jus about anything they found online, because I just wanted them to understand the basics of how video, stills and music can come together to make a story or message. I didn't worry about copyright too much because I knew that our work wouldn't be shown outside the walls of our school. I know now that there are provisions for this in the law, and the law is pretty flexible. I think that if I ever end up teaching video production again, I'll be thinking about this a whole new way.
ReplyDeleteI am borrowing Zack's questions from his post on Kim's blog. What are the rules about copying full sheets of music and distributing them to students to take home? If you buy a book of sheet music and photocopy the pages to create a class set for your kids - is that considered fair use or is it a copyright infringement? I know the music teachers at my school have build a Vision site (like Blackboard) where they post the music so kids can access it at home to practice. Fair use and transformativeness helped clear up copyright some for me, but it still is not crystal clear for me.
ReplyDeleteHey Stacey- I agree that it's not a good idea to trust 10 year olds with your music. I will also copy music but I'm going to think through Kim and Zack's questions and respond on my blog.. but let me know if you have thoughts too.
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