A Much Needed Refresher...

How many times can this happen? I keep finding myself shocked at what I do not know about the very subject I am teaching my students. I guess this is what my colleagues mean when they say, “We [teachers] don’t know everything like the students think we do.” However, I guess it is better to be studying and learning new things, rather than acting like a “know it all” and teaching my high school students the wrong thing. 

One would think that a double major in English and Journalism from MTSU would ensure that I know about the differences between copyright, fair use, and creative commons licenses. But, I feel that I may not have completely grasped this concept back when I was in my undergraduate work. Since I have been asked, in my graduate program, to take a look at these concepts, I finally feel that I can explain the similarities and differences in my own words.

I assume that I am not the only instructor out there who had second guessed when we can or cannot use copyrighted materials. When lesson planning or making copies to hand out to my students, I have often wondered if what I was doing was completely legal regarding copyright laws. I also have had many questions about understanding how to leverage Creative Commons licensing (another topic I have always overlooked). Below is what I have determined:

Using Copyrighted Materials - “Fair Use” 

To better understand the topic of Copyright and Fair Use, and the special provisions that have been made for educational uses, I went through many websites, and even pulled out some of my old Journalism textbooks to refresh my memory. Something I found extremely beneficial was a website by the Columbia University Copyright Advisory Office. On that website I found a wonderful checklist that people can use if they are question whether or not something is considered fair use.

Another website that was great in explaining the details of copyright fair use was the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education web page and video. Taking a look at this site, I found it very helpful as an educator using media literacy concepts and techniques.

When thinking about how I could teach my students this (in a way they would remember), I came across the favorite of my sources; a video which uses Disney movie clips to define copyright and fair use!

Creative Commons 

Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that develops, supports, and stewards legal and technical infrastructure that maximizes digital creativity, sharing, and innovation. The slogan on their website says it all really: Share, Remix, Reuse — Legally. After reading on the Creative Commons website it seems that their licenses give you the ability to dictate how others may exercise your copyright rights; they can copy parts of your work, make derivative works, distribute it, and so on. When I first heard of Creative Commons I was skeptical, but when I realized how ideas can evolve over time, from one mind to the next, it began to make sense. I now see it as a great idea; something that really helps to expand on copyright and inspire others to use resources in ways the creators are content with. 

When looking thorough the types of Creative Commons licenses, it seemed that they each had their own definition and icons to indicate that they apply to a given work. The six types of Creative Commons licenses are: 

Attribution: This is the least restrictive license. You can distribute, remix, change, and build upon the work, even commercially, as long as you credit the original creation.

Attribution Share Alike: You can change and build upon the work, even for commercial reasons, as long as you credit the creator and license your new creation under the identical terms.

Attribution No Derivatives: Allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to the creator.

Attribution Non-Commercial:  Lets others remix, change, and build upon the work only non-commercially, and new works must acknowledge the original, but they don’t have to license those derivative works on the same terms.

Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike:  Others can remix, tweak, and build upon a work non-commercially, as long as they credit the creator and license their new creations under the identical terms. All new work based will carry the same license (derivatives will also be non-commercial in nature).

Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives: The most restrictive license. Often called the “free advertising” license because it allows others to download works and share them with others as long as they mention the source and link back to it, but they can’t change the work in any way, or use them commercially.

Creative Commons also provides tools that work in the “all rights granted” space of the public domain.  It seems that people or users of Creative Commons can mark their work as public domain, which means that is free for use by anyone for any purpose without restriction under copyright law. Public domain is said to be the “purest form of open/free, since no one owns or controls the material in any way.” 

Last but not least, another great resource, which will help my students understand the concept of Creative Commons, was a video discussing why and how people can share their creativity. I REALLY think between the Disney video (on copyright/“fair use”, above) and this, my students will be able to see the difference between the two, and understand when and when not to use a piece of work. 

In conclusion, this refresher was a much needed assignment. I plan to use my findings to create new lesson plans for my yearbook staff and literature classes. I really believe they know that it is NOT okay to use others work as their own (sometimes laziness gets in their way), but I feel they will find it very interesting, and helpful for their future, to realize that there are ways to share or use ones creativity through Creative Commons licenses.