Copyright

The tech tip this week is not a tool. Rather, it is an important component of digital citizenship--copyright. Copyright can be a bit confusing and easy to overlook, but it is something we should both reinforce with our students and practice as professional educators.

Here are a couple of general tips:

• If you or your students are creating public websites, blogs or YouTube videos, you should not use copyrighted materials without permission.
• If you or your students wish to use copyrighted materials within your classroom (and not share publicly online), you can often do this under the terms of Fair Use. Fair Use is judged based on 4 main criteria:
• Purpose (of your use) -- Education and scholarly use are often allowed.
• Amount (used) -- The less you use, the more often that use is OK.
• Nature (of the work) -- Creative works are more protected than non-fiction and scholarly works. It is generally OK to use materials for the purpose of satire or parody.
• Effect (on the market) -- If you are costing the creator money, you probably can’t use it without permission.

If you would like to learn more, check out some of these resources:

• A Short Copyright Presentation for Teachers (outlines what you can/can’t do)
• More on Fair Use from MIT Libraries
• Places to get copyright-free images (OK to use even on public websites, videos, etc.)
• Search Creative Commons – use “Find CC Licensed works”
• Use Google Advanced Image Search and look for “usage rights” limit – filter by “free to use or share”
• Use images created by the US government (.gov), which are generally, though not always, in the public domain (See e.g. http://www.nasa.gov), and read the terms of use to verify status of content. Search www.usa.gov for a great place to start.
• Use a site devoted to public domain works

For even more: Talk to your building media specialist or digital learning specialist. They can help answer questions and provide more information.