Copyright

I read the Diigo article on copyrights and watched the great video and came away with an enormous sense of responsibility as a teacher to enforce copyright and be an example to my students. The law is very complicated and Fair Use is very involved and specific. Most importantly, I know that I need to know the law, not just to protect myself, but to be a role model. It is a very teachable moment when handing out material for students to read that is not textbook based. I believe that from early on, children should know what it is to make something and that when it is made and put out in the world, other people will respect it by asking to use it if they want to. What a compliment that would be for someone who has written or composed a work, to have a classroom study it!

When I was teaching at the college level, all of my graduate students were involved in appropriating "things" from cyberspace. They incorporated music, beats, photos, images, movie clips, sounds, soundtracks and anything and everything they could dig up to make their work more interesting and exciting to look at. Artists are always getting into copyright trouble for "stealing" some piece of another's work. There were some of my grad students who were very responsible (not because of me!) and were aware of the laws and wrote letters and emailed for permission. But the vast majority of student artists use at will, anything they can find. A lot of art is made spontaneously and the thought of arresting that process is ridiculous for some. Upon reading more about copyright for teachers and the severe consequences is not just a bit scary but a lot scary.

The answer is simple - be aware that there are copyright laws and follow them. From what I understand, teachers are given a long rope when it comes to using information for a short period of time and just using bits of a piece rather than the whole. As an art teacher, the best place to teach young artists about copyright is in the classroom. This will sensitize them to the issue for future projects and to pass the word to other students.