What I am doing with the Martin Luther King Jr project is testing what
an educator needs to do to get permission - especially since I am a
webmaster and actually "publish" the work to the web.
What you do in your classroom can go unnoticed - but once you start
publishing to the Internet - you open yourself up to be challenged if
permissions were not received for copyrighted/intellectual property -
including depicting the image of individuals (even though King's image
is all over the Internet, they want his image use restricted -
protecting his right to publicity - and the estates right to collect
their licensing fees)
In my email conversations with the representative of the estate, they
are not interested in contacting webmasters for unauthorized use for
all of the many "tribute" or "fan" sites, they are more interested in
insuring educational sites go through the proper permissions/license
to use King's image and any text of his speeches. Perhaps they don't
want to limit the fan/tribute sites rights of expression - freedom of
speech?
They are holding educators to a higher standard than the general
public. I am guessing that since all of this information on
copyright/intellectual property law is now readily available to us,
they expect us to know it and seek the permissions.
One thing that you do have in your defense for Fair Use - is that
material is needed in a timely manor in your classroom. A teacher can
not wait 5 to 8 weeks to find out if his or her lesson is approved and
at what cost it will be. I hope this clears up things. I clearly
believe use of Martin Luther King's image and use of his speeches is
Fair Use in your classrooms. My intent is to make you aware what the
wishes of the family are. Requiring public schools to obtain licenses
will bring in so much more revenue for them.
On seeking permission....Unfortunately, they only approve 50% of the
educational requests that come to them (according to an article I
read). If your request is denied, and you proceed with your lesson
anyways, I do not know what the fall out might be. In my opinion, you
are far better off to use your Fair Use defense, don't seek permission
- and just not bring publicity to your program.
Those of you interested in learning more about Trademark law (which
comes into play with Tina's lesson) might want to check the Chilling
Effects web site.
http://www.chillingeffects.org/
This will be my last Copyright post for a while... I hope... I just
wanted to clarify a few things.... I do not support the actions of the
Estate in any way. I wish to preserve your Fair Use.
