Introduction

Should the copyright laws be changed?

There has never been a more important time than now to know the rules. As a result of laws written and passed by Congress, companies are now creating technologies that block users from fair use of property.  In addition to helping you steer clear of legal trouble, understanding the principles of fair use will allow you and your fellow students to pursue new areas where technology and learning that are ahead of the law, and encourage you to speak out when you feel your rights to copyright material have been violated.

Task                          

The Scenario: Your student group is part of a State of Illinois Copyright Committee assigned to review and recommend changes to the existing copyright/fair use laws for education.  What recommendations would your group make based on the current copyright/fair use laws? 

Process

Over the next few days, you and your group will be reviewing and researching copyright and fair use regulations as they pertain to:

• music

• video and DVD

• illustrations and photographs

• printed word on the Internet

• computer software

 You (your group) will conduct research and formulate questions, such as:

1. What are the existing regulations and laws as they pertain music (or the others)?

2. Are the regulations fair to the author?

3. Are the regulations fair to the Internet user?

4. What would you change?  Why?

5. What recommendations would your group make to the State?

6. What would be the impact (on the economy, music industry, or film industry, etc.) if these recommendations were voted into law?

As the work progresses, your group will formulate more questions to answer.  The questions will be researched cooperatively everyone in the group.  Some of the group members will take on the role of author or internet user to gain a different perspective on the copyright and fair use regulations.

All groups will use the Internet links provided (as a start) to conduct their research, discuss any changes they would make to the laws and come to a group consensus. 

Consensus Building:  This is the hard part!  When everyone in the group has reviewed all the sites, information, it's time to get together to answer the questions (the ones you formulated with the group)  from your perspective (author or user).  One way to proceed would be to go around and poll each group member for their thoughts.  Pay attention to each  other's perspectives, even if at first you think you might disagree with them.  There will probably not be unanimous agreement, so the next step is to talk together to hammer out a compromise agreement about your groups' ideas and recommendations.  Pool your ideas and see if you can agree on what's best for education.  One person in each group should record the group's thoughts.

Groups will share their recommendations to the class via a multi-media presentation.

Links:  Use these links to research your information.

10 Big Myths About Copyright Explained- this site is self explanatory.

A Brief Intro Into Copyright-the author gives a brief review of copyright laws

Copyrights and Copying Wrongs-a down-to-earth article on copyright in education

A Teachers Guide to Fair Use and Copyright-great information and chart that makes
regulations easy to understand.

ISLMA Professional Resources-Illinois School Library Media Association article on copyright and multi-media in the classroom.

Reboot Your Attitude-this program was developed by Scholastic Inc. and the Business Software Alliance to inform you and your students about copyright laws protecting software and to alert you to the ethical uses of software.  Great mini-lessons to use if you don't have time for the "big" project.  Check out the poster.

Copyright and Fair Use-Stanford University Library has tons of links on this site to copyright and fair use information.

The Educator's Guide to Copyright and Fair Use-one of the best articles on copyright and fair use.  Great relevant and timely information and a chart that you can hang up in the classroom.

The US Copyright Office-contains everything you want to know about the topic.

Evaluation                   

Your group will be evaluated using the following group rubric.   Your teacher may include a self and class evaluation as well.

 Conclusion

You should realize that you are legally bound by copyright laws. These laws protect your creative efforts as well as the creations of other people.

Credits

Davidson, Hall  "The Educator's Guide to Copyright and Fair Use." Techlearning.   http://www.techlearning.com/db_area/archives/TL/2002/10/copyright.html (15 October 2002).

Dodge, Bernie, Design Patterns.  http://webquest.sdsu.edu/designpatterns/all.htm

We all benefit by being generous with our work. Permission is hereby granted for other educators to copy this WebQuest, update or otherwise modify it, and post it elsewhere provided that the original author's name is retained along with a link back to the original URL of this WebQuest. On the line after the original author's name, you may add Modified by (your name) on (date). If you do modify it, please let me know and provide the new URL.

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