Within education, copyright law is often misunderstood. Much of this confusion has been created by so called experts, often non-lawyers, who provide opinion of the subject frequently in rigid, overstated terms. Written materials targeted at educators also tend to overstate the risk associated with fair use of copyrighted material. According to the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education, educators should be leaders rather than followers concerning fair use. They need to understand fair use and assert their rights to make decisions on their own.
The Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education was created, in part, to help educators interpret the copyright doctrine of fair use. The creators of the document included members of leading educational associations and other educators across the United States. A committee of legal scholars and lawyers, expert in copyright and fair use, also reviewed the code.
Fair use is not exactly specified in copyright law, rather, judges refer to four types of considerations mentioned in the law: the nature of the use, the nature of the work used, the extent of the use, and its economic effect. The Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education defines five principles for the employment of copyrighted material. For example, when employing copyrighted material in media literacy lessons, educators should choose material that is “germane to the project or topic, using only what is necessary for the educational goal or purpose for which it is being made.” Such use is consistent and appropriate with the four considerations mentioned in the law.
Many myths exist within the educational community regarding the use of copyrighted material. One such myth is that the school system rules are the last word of fair use by educators. While schools systems make rules with the best of intentions often utilizing negotiated fair use guidelines, those rules may create a safe zone for the system with the unintended consequence of inhibiting creativity of the educator and the ability of the educator to utilize media within then entire range of possibility available through fair use. A clear understanding of fair use and utilization of The Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education may be used to help change the rules of the system.
I think that in my school, most teachers have no idea what the copyright laws actually say. Most would not be able to tell you what "fair use" means or refers to. They can tell you that sometimes they are hassled when they try to show a video, but other than that, it's limited. I think some education about fair use and about the copyright laws and county policies regarding the laws would be a very good thing to include in our faculty's training.
ReplyDeleteThe concept of "fair use" makes me nervous. It seems like such a slippery slope. Like Lisa is saying, it is very situational, so it's difficult to sit down and train faculty on fair use. Sometimes I will be using something and I question whether I am using it legally, and then I just kind of say to myself "fair use!" and go about my business, and I don't think that is the intention of the fair use policy.
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