I read Copyright 101 for Educators: Winter 2003. Copyright is a basic protection that is provided by the laws of the United States. These protect an author or creator of something original from their work being copied without permission. Copyright covers everything from paintings, photos, poems, novels, anything you create. Copyright happens as soon as it is available to others whether it is published, or unpublished. I will definitely be more careful now about the things I use off of the Internet. So many times I use a picture, sentence or idea off the Internet without giving it proper reference. I now know that even all the billion images on Google must be referenced. This seems like it would be hard to do, and for some definitions it’s hard to re-write the meaning because that may change it, but a quick reference will do.
The Teachers Act is an important thing for us as educators to know about and understand. This law, signed in 2002, allows educators to copy documents or use copyrighted materials openly in a face-to-face classroom setting. There is also the idea called “fair use,” this allows a person to use a small amount of copyrighted materials without getting permission. The four factors that must be evaluated to determine if it’s fair use include:
1. The purpose and character of the use
2. The nature of the copyrighted work
3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the work as a whole
4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
Knowing about the teachers act and fair use laws will help me better reference necessary things, and understand what things are okay to use in my classroom. It will be important to know about this so that I can teach the next generation about these laws.
This copyright stuff is daunting, and takes time. It is just so easy to use material from the Internet.
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