"We must not make a scarecrow of the law."

I chose this quote from Shakespeare's Measure for Measure.  Much like the convoluted world that Shakespeare's characters inhabit, the world of copyright seems just as complicated and hard to navigate.  If we believe in giving people due credit for intellectual works, we must establish and enforce laws that protect it.  Hence, we must not make scarecrows.

"Creative Commons Globe Theatre" by Tracy Ducasse is licensed under CC By 2.0

If we want people to understand copyright, then we need to teach them.  This video, Fair use in a Digital World, shows how an English Language Arts teacher has integrated copyright law into her lessons.  She lets her students watch Youtube videos and then evaluate whether there has been a violation of copyright law.  She, as a good teacher should, is getting her students to think about fair use, copyright, creative commons, and public domain.  It is no accident that we use Shakespeare so much in high schools (He is, indeed, public domain).  Teachers can also find other lessons in the teaching copyright  collection and further explication of good practices to instill in students in this copyright friendly content.  Just as we teach students to cite sources as evidence in essays, we need to teach them how to cite copyrighted material.

Beyond teaching explicit lessons in copyright issues, teachers also need to model good behavior.  Certainly, I can make sure that I use Clip Art or my own photographs in class slide shows.  However,  I can also make use of the Creative Commons which makes fair use of copyrighted materials relatively easy.  Creative Commons and copyright makes it relatively easy to understand how to use their materials.  Artists can stipulate how a material can be used including restriction on profit and derivatives.  For your students who wish to create their own work, Creative Commons makes it easy for them to disperse and manage licensing as their Wanna work together?  video demonstrates.

"2012-240 #6WordMission" by Denise Krebs licensed under CC By 2.0

However, I am not sure that this world is entirely as cut and dry as all of this seems.  If we are to model this behavior, it may not be as easy as I think.  Educators are granted a fair amount of freedom of 'fair use' when using copyrighted materials in their classroom.  This guide provides some wonderful scenarios of what can actually happen in classroom and whether copyright has been violated.  There are great Youtube videos out there to use in classrooms; however, do they violate copyright?  What if they contain copyrighted material?  This video further demonstrates how re-mixing can make fair use a gray area.  What about if I watch materials I know are copyrighted on Youtube?  How many of us have found movies or television episodes on Youtube?  We are not in violation of the law of copyright (someone else has posted it) but we are violating the spirit if we do not pay to be able to enjoy the fruits of someone else's labor.

I think we definitely need to get our students thinking about how downloading music and videos without paying is a violation.  One of the best ways to do this might be to give them a project.  Have them work on an original song or video.  When completed, tell them to think about how much work they put into it.  Would they want others to use that without giving them credit?