Copyright: Clear or Muddy Waters?
Nov 11th, 2008 by Cathy Jo Nelson
Today I virtually participated in a live broadcast put together by a group of media literacy educators including “experts” from American University in DC and Temple University, and a product was released today that supposedly simplifies copyright and provides best practice guidelines to teachers and students. The guide supposedly simplifies the legalities of using copyrighted materials in an academic setting. It’s called The Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education, and is available here.
Released with a lot of pomp and circumstance–they were in the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia this morning at 9:30, many big named organizations and people were there to both present the information as available to the public AND watch/listen to the presentation. I myself watched from afar, and was one of the virtual attendees. I also participated in the chat that took place simultaneously with the streamed video (a BIG THANK YOU to Kristan Hokanson for making the virtual attendance a reality to me AND to exposing the organizations that worked diligently to create this daily to the power of using virtual tools to gather collective wisdom and voice! I swear we who use these tools in our daily lives have just taken one grand-daddy step towards getting more buy in from other educators, particularly TPTB (and TPTB–the powers that be–just in case you are curious, are the National Association for Media Literacy Education, the Action Coalition for Media Education, the National Council of Teachers of English, the Visual Communication Studies Division of the International Communication Association, and the Media Education Foundation, facilitators Peter Jaszi and Patricia Aufderheide of American University and Renee Hobbs of Temple University. Oh and let’s not forget the many school and district based educators who tuned in today.)
The largest number I saw in the virtual viewing audience was 121, and I had to bail when a class came in around 10:45AM. Sigh–kids come first, always. I am looking forward to reviewing all the links, videos, presentations, and downloads available, and you can find them on the wiki here.
So later this afternoon, my friend Frank Baker asked our list, some of whom I SAW in the virtual chat “cover-it-live”, this question:
OK, if you watched the stream of the event (or if you plan to watch it after the fact) here is my BIG question”
Does this report clarify it for you? or does it muddy the copyright/fair use waters?
Just curious.
Wow. That is a BIG question. I’m still trying to process the information. I don’t know about anyone else, and maybe it’s because I’m a SLOW learner, but I still have a hard time determining “transformative.”
I can say this for sure. Where copyright seemed to be very black and white–transformative seems to have added shades of grey. So I suppose as I mull over this information in the next few days, I cannot say yet until I mash it around in my brain. I guess for now I have to say the water is muddy. But that is very typical, particularly after a storm, and I definitely would call the information shared today a storm to really stretch my thinking. So I’m still waiting for calmer weather and time to clear the waters.
Attribution:
www.flickr.com/photos/85543821@N00/1792162716
www.flickr.com/photos/49512158@N00/2983930455
Cathy-
I think what “muddys the water” is the fact that the statement does not telling folks what to do…(use 30 seconds of music) but asking them to think critically about their use based on a set of guidelines or scenarios. In a time where we are encouraging teachers to begin to shift their practice to so that kids are using this same type of critical eye as they do research, and consume information…why SHOULDN’T we be asking them to do the same as they produce content? just sayin’
I have just posted (on the Copyright/Fair Use Project’s blog) two recommendations:
1) create a national webinar and/or video teleconference which would be designed to answer the mostly common asked questions (FAQs) about K-12 school copyright issues
2) create a location (blog, wiki, etc) in which K-12 educators can both pose their copyright questions AND get expert answers/responses
Without either of these, confusion will continue to reign…
My two cents.
Without
Frank’s #2 reminds me of attempts I have made over the years to coax the state tech coordinators and media specialists out of email listservs and into a forum.
No need to list the pros of a forum vs. the cons of a listserv for readers of this blog (right?), but both serious attempts I made fizzled….
The first attempt was in 2002 I think? I got a domain name (scedtechforum.org), created a vBulletin forum with sections for tech coordinators and media specialists, and did what I could to promote it, but it fizzled…
Reckon it would take more buy-in up front in order to wean folks off their listserv habit…
Personally, I think these things are important in gaining copyright clarity:
1. Read the Code
2. Use the curriculum materials designed to teach about copyright and fair use with students or teaching– or both
3. Participate in discussion sessions (with students or other educators) where you reason through decision-making about whether a particular situation is a fair use or not
We have created three videos– one features the lovely Kristen Hokanson- with discussion questions to explore. These are great for considering what transformativeness means within educational practice
We have created 5 lesson plans– with readings, activities and hands-on production– that support this process. Try them out!
But it’s a process. Copyright clarity does take time. Let’s keep talking. As we exercise our rights to fair use, we get more confident and more clear about what to consider in making a fair use analysis.