Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Unit 7: Copyright and the Web




I want to first start this off by saying, I have learned a lot about copyrights! As I was aware of what copyrights were I was unaware of the amount of details and the actual legal rights that were out there on this issue.  I think since I have never really planned on using any of my material for anything more than teaching that I have ever really looked into the legal requirements of copyright.  I am astonished that there are so many publications that   even come out with such strict requirements.  My eyes are really open now to what goes into make things like a history textbook.  Since most of what is in those textbooks are not new ideas, the legality of it all is a huge undertaking.  

With all that being said for my project since it is going to be used for educational use and not for a profit I believe that the “Fair Use” clause will work for the most of my work.   I was also amused with the video, “A Fair(y) Use Tale: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJn_jC4FNDo

The website Teachers Pay Teachers has a strict copyright policy.  On their page they have a layout of what is expected of each participant and what will be done if any infringements take place or they will review any material that is in question.  When I first heard of this site I thought to myself that it is so hard to come up with 100% brand new materials all the time and that this site would be a good one.  Then I second guessed myself and thought how 100% is the material on it, can all of this people really recreate new material, or is it 75% old material that is tweaked into new stuff.  I have taught for 13 years and have made others material my own, but does that really make it mine?  In my defense I always gave all my material as it was so given to me.  I never sold any materials for money so I felt ok with it.  Using Teachers pay Teachers can probable cause some legality issues for people who are not being 100% true with their material.  Ethically if you make up material that is 100% yours then there is no issue.  I think the ethical problem is for those who alter others and claim it for themselves.  

1 comment:

  1. Patricia
    I also rely on the idea of fair use, but I do try and find as many materials as possible in the public domain or materials with a creative commons license. Since I do use a lot of images in my work, I am careful to always cite originals (something that I was not careful to do in my early web years)

    ReplyDelete