Being in an industry for the past 15 years that requires you to be creative and observe those copyright laws I can understand where a lot of the reading this week comes from. My web design business has been around since 1996 and I can readily admit to being in that group of people who believed several of the "big myths" revolving around copyrighting when I first began in this business. Basically I had an incident with a wedding website that I was creating where an image I used as the logo per the client was apparently a copyrighted image created by someone else. Long story short, I had to agree to remove the image after proof of copyright and learned to be a bit more careful from that point forward. 
There was so much information given to us during the reading and videos this week on copyright information that it was almost overwhelming. However, much of the information was helpful to answer many questions that have always just sort of loomed out there in the world of copyright law. I know that during our time here at Full Sail University we have been told not to use copyrighted material without prior permission and that we are better off creating our own original images, music, etc... I know that Creative Commons has become many of our friends throughout the EMDT program and something I had not heard of before this program. The duration of time that a copyright lasts surprised me (lifetime +70 years or 100 years for a company). That along with the logistics of what can be determined as "fair use" can be confusing. As an educator there are time when you just want to use a clip of something because it can help get your point across to the students using something they have likely seen before or are familiar with to help build a connection to the subject matter, but that is where you apparently have to be careful. While it was noted that Teachers were one of the four different areas that could use copyrighted material it also was noted that if the lesson could be taught without that material then it would not be considered "fair use". It all sounded like a lot of lawyer speak and verbal jargon to confuse the masses in order to keep them scared about using copyrighted material.
That is where Creative Commons comes into play. I love the ability to search for images on Creative Commons and find ways that I can use them and share them with others in my own work. I also am thankful for the opportunity to add my own works to Creative Commons in order to share my work with others and allow them to use it through whatever licensing I choose. Being in the web design business I have found that this offers me a great new opportunity to license my works and share them with others. I can also see this as being a very useful avenue for educators as well.
After watching Larry Lessig’s TED Talk about Remix Culture, I find that my daughter is one of those teenagers who uses her creative video remixes as a means to "be heard" so to speak. For the past several years she has been creating these remixes using popular songs and anime videos that she remixes together as well as some of her own Flash creations to share what I consider to be a great talent with others. Now I worry about the copyright repercussions to her works that she shares freely on her YouTube channel and her Facebook page. In my opinion taking that creativity away from our children is as bad as removing the creativity from schools. She is currently taking Graphic Design and her teacher has told the students that if they change and image by more than 75% from the original image that they are not breaking any copyright laws. How true this is I am still unsure of even after reviewing all of our reading this week, but I do know that at least she is getting some copyright knowledge while she is expressing her creativity. I just know that as a parent and educator that I feel it would be wrong to stifle this creativity and from allowing our youth to express themselves in one of the only ways they know how and that is through the digital technology that is so easily accessible to them. 
Levonda,
ReplyDeleteLike you I believed several of those myths about copyright. Being a user of the original napster and limewire, I especially believed that a long as I didn’t sell it, it was okay to download it. As an Art teacher, I wish I could help you about the 75% issue, but I’ve never heard that. The librarian had this informative handout by the copier last year that talked about “fair use” and how much was okay to use of something, but it seemed more restricting than was worth the trouble sometimes. I don’t know how accurate the handout was, or if it was just someone’s creative suggestions. It worries me too about stifling our children’s creativity. It is often an issue in my class for students to come up with something to draw that isn’t already someone else’s idea, which drives me crazy.