Week three of the Digital Citizenship course focused on the information of copyright, plagiarism, transformation and any other forms of ensuring proper use. Throughout the readings, there is a lot of information about defining each one, examples/case studies, and a lot of jargon that can be confusing, but if you understand the gist of it, and properly cite resources and attribute, then you’ll be safe.
The first thing that was interesting in this weeks learnings was the news story about a monkey that took a selfie with a photographer’s camera. The issue that came up was whether or not the rights to that picture belong to the cameraman because the picture garnered a lot of attention from the media. The photographer was fighting for the copyrights to it, but according to the law, since the monkey took the picture, it doesn’t belong to the cameraman.
Another article that came up was Hudson Institute White paper that deals with the idea of the U.S. Copyright office either staying with the Library of Congress, or separating due to the retirement of James Billington. In the article there are a lot of main points for why it should be separated and I strongly believe based on the claims provided, it should be separated. Having a separate office that can focus solely on copyright issues should be important because in the Library of Congress, it is not. In fact, it’s not even a top priority in the Library of Congress, and even in the Copyright office, their focus isn’t even on copyright issues, rather they do other tedious jobs.
Lastly was the information about transformative and fair use copyright, which I am still confused on both topics and what constitutes as me using stuff in the right way. I was able to use a website that guides me through the process of finding out what fair use is, so I believe for the most part what I use in my classroom is in compliance. I do have to reflect, especially when I used videos or outside sources to make sure it is being properly used. Also, my understanding of transformative is that if you’re using something of someone else’s, then as long as you’re not using the whole thing, rather a snip-it of it to help you create something on your own, then that is okay. Now that I think about it, I’ve seen several cases of this in the music industry and how they “sample” work from other artists, to help create their new songs, so that must mean they are using it properly.
These key points were difficult to understand in this week’s assignments, but with continuous practice, and continuous teaching, then I believe that I can stay in legal compliance. This will also help be continuing to be an effective teacher. Then when it comes time to teach these ideas to students, they will be better prepared for the future.
References
Stim, R. (2019) Fair use: What is Transformative? Retrieved from https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/fair-use-what-transformative.html
Tepp S. and Oman, R. (2015, October). A 21st century copyright office: The conservative case for reform. Hudson Institute. Retrieved from https://www.hudson.org/research/11772-a-21st-century-copyright-office-the-conservative-case-for-reform
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