Hi,
Besides the excellent resource that Judy suggested, there is another one
that deals mostly with electronic media. It's created by Hall Davidson
and has quiz's for teachers and students and a two page quick guide to
copyright.
Some of my schools have put a copy of the quick guide next to the
photocopy machine so that teachers can make some copies of it.
Good to be back!
-Alix
Alix E. Peshette
Technology Training Specialist
Technology Support
Davis Joint Unified School District
Davis, CA
-----Original Message-----
From: Judy Decker [mailto:judy.decker@gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, January 20, 2006 8:38 PM
To: TeacherArtExchange Discussion Group
Subject: [teacherartexchange] Copyright & Fair Use - a VERY Good Guide
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.
