some baseline questions

[Connie Weber]

One month into the Switchover. Evolution of a homeroom class. November 20, 07

Some baseline questions:

What really constitutes copyright violations? Is this a nebulous thing? Are there rules that hold true throughout this flux of ownership, this age of extreme increase of information flow and accessibility? If someone could give me a simple answer, I'd be grateful. What's ok, what's not? What can we post, legally?

Can we post Youtube videos on our class network? (Why is the access to a particular video constantly changing?) How about images--where must they come from for it to be ok for us to share?

Is it always ok to leave a link as the reference? When is it preferable to post to a copy of an article? What governs what files we can share?

Is it ok to record a telling of a story?

Does all this depend upon audience? If it's just our little group of 25 or so, does much of this matter?

Is "audience" the relevant variable? Is audience always known? Do rules for your current community hold true for that community on into the future, through expansion and all sorts of knowledge-sharing? Are there any rules? What are they?

Is there an easy way to look up whether it's alright to post a particular song, movie clip, or picture? What do we want kids to know about copyright laws?

Ok, those are just the rather technical questions on my mind right now. Well, they're sort of technical, and actually pretty philosophical too. What constitutes ownership anymore? How can we be respectful of creators' rights, and also share what we need to share?

Much of It hearkens back to the video on Youtube, "The Machine is Us/ing Us." That video rather haunts me. In a good way, I'm pretty sure.

[S Mann]

What a perfect video to start the week. Thanks for sharing. :-)

[Greg Oz]

Connie, another source of material is Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Here in Oz, you can use copyrighted material in educational contexts - ie. to show another class but not to have publicly available (ie. via the net). Having said all that the copyright law is a real maze - not easy to follow and not made easy for educational institutions

[Connie Weber]

Thanks, David and Greg--
These questions keep coming up, sometimes in agonizing ways. I had a few very artistic kids make an iMovie of a picture book, much the way they do on shows like Reading Rainbow, with sensitive reading and a thoughtful musical track. Well, I got royally chewed out by our librarian--also incited a huge scolding and lecture for the entire class. I felt ashamed, hung my head--bad modeling on my part; wrong expectations. Still, I ended up confused, for these kids tell the picture book stories all the time; they travel around the school (and sometimes the city) to storytell. Why is that ok and use of multimedia not ok? I'm just naive, I guess. That's why I posted "baseline questions."
Just saw that you two guys had responded to it, and I'm very grateful. I'll watch the video when I get to school with high-speed, David, and will check out Creative Commons today, Greg.
Did you guys see The Machine is Us/ing Us?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE
That video is something I can watch over and over. I love the provocative ending, about how everything is changing, with huge questions coming up about copyright.

[Greg Oz]

Hi Connie, have you checked out Creative Commons - great source of material. All material has codes that specify under what conditions they can be used - it's also a feature within Flickr (under advanced search - you can search for Creative Commons photos)

[ddeubel]

Connie,

Have you seen this Larry Lessig lecture? It is just wonderful and really makes a strong point for a redefining of "copyright" (his owning airspace metaphor is so apt). I would go even further - that as educators we need to speak out more and say more against the business model being applied to education (and that is what copyright is.....when you rid it of its wrapping). Teachers should have control of content (and be judged by how they us it also....supply/demand actions/consequences. BUT they should still have access to ideas for educational consumption for the betterment of society and all....