Honestly, in most of the teacher technology courses that I
myself have taught, I glossed over issues of copyright, simply because I did
not know the information. I also considered it to be too large an issue to
research on my own. So, I was excited to hear that our first week in MAC would
explore copyright. It will be nice to be able to say something about copyright
and permissions in my upcoming workshops, other than to argue that all teachers
fall under the umbrella defense provided by “Fair Use!”
I enjoyed Good
Copy/Bad Copy—although I should have paid closer attention to the warning
about disturbing images, and watched from home, rather than at work! The
juxtaposition that the filmmakers set up, between Girl Talk the music-mixer who
argues that copyright laws “interfere” with his creativity and the MPAA
attorney who claims that the entertainment industry loses $6 billion each year
to copyright infringement, was compelling. Although I might not always
demonstrate this perfectly by the way that I use images and other media in my
lectures for students, I am actually a very strong believer that individuals
and corporations should be fairly compensated for the work that they do—and the
media that they produce. Profit is a powerful motivator, and not inherently a
bad one. (What can I say? My parents gave me a copy of Atlas Shrugged when I was in junior high!) 
The digital age has brought so many issues of copyright,
permissions and usage to the forefront. I think that Lawrence Lessig’s point
that, while U.S. copyright laws serve a valuable purpose, they are simply
outdated. His licensing platform, Creative Commons, offers a valuable tool for
codifying permissions. I’m really looking forward to sharing information about
the various types of CC licenses with my colleagues and students.
Kim,
ReplyDeleteI was intrigued by your mention of the title, Atlas Shrugged in relationship to the copyright issue; since I was not familiar with it I had to Google the book. Wow you read that in middle school? Did you understand the theme and symbolism of the book? I thought it was interesting that when the book was first released that it was not popular but that through the years it still has a steady following. I think the current generation if they knew about this book would enjoy reading it (Do you think Ron Paul has read it?) In fact I have a couple of students that really would love to read this book – I need to see if I can get my hands on a copy.
Anyway, I agree that individuals and corporations should be fairly compensated for their work but I do not think to the point that no one else can afford to use their work in order to create something new and different. I think to some degree compensation in our society is a tad bit skewed in some areas.
I also agree with you that Creative Commons will allow us to have our “cake and eat it too!”
Kimberly, you seem to have gained great insight into the copyright laws and all the issues associated with it. I also feel that individuals and corporations should be compensated for their work, but the lines of 'original work' are so blurry. Especially with music tracks and rhythmic licks. I feel that the court are quick to side with big music producers because it has a lot to do with the money involved. For copyright laws to survive, they must be updated to account for creativity. Even the creativity to do a remix of a remix of a remixed song.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that the info has armed you with a better response to your teachers' questions. It is so complicated, but there are several basic things that we can focus on when working with others.
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