Copyright in the United States can be tricky when it comes to using materials in the classroom. Between the Fair Use Act, and the TEACH Act, it is sometimes hard for educators to navigate whether or not copywritten materials can be used legally in the classroom.
First, it is important to understand some of the basic vocabulary associated with copyright. Plagiarism is intentionally or unintentionally claiming someone else's work as your own. An example would be copy and pasting a paragraph from a journal article into your own original essay without giving credit to the original author. Copyright is very similar to plagiarism with the added requirement that the material that was claimed as ones own has been copyrighted. This could include images or videos as well as written material. For example, if you copy the work of Peter Rabbit without the permission of the author's estate, it would be copyright infringement. Attribution is using a small portion of someone else's work and properly crediting them for their work. For example, I could use a short piece of poetry from another author in my novel if I properly attributed the work to that author. Transformation is taking someone else's work and changing or altering it to call it your own without giving credit to the original source. For example, if one takes the lyrics to a song and changes the melody without crediting the original lyricist, that would be transformation.
The effective use of copyrighted materials enhances the teaching and learning process. Without the fair use policy, educators would not have the right to use copyrighted material to enhance their teaching in the classroom (Dschrimsher, 2010). This would severely impede using these materials to enhance the lesson or to read examples of the subject matter at hand.
The cost of obtaining permission to use literature, media, and other copywritten materials would make it unachievable for many schools and districts to use them, which would be unfair to students. Teachers would be limited in what they could teach; more modern styles of writing and valuable media clips would not be shown to students to enhance the lessons.
Imagine this: a 2nd grade teacher is giving a lesson on the structure of plays and how they are written and read. They must write their own play or scene in order for students to see an example of the structure because they do not want to infringe upon the copywrite of any playwright. This means more work for the teacher and writing may not be their strong suit. Now imagine the same classroom using a play about the 3 bears that their teacher found and copied for them. They can each have their own copy, read it as it should be read (out loud), and may even find a video of it being performed to watch when they are finished.
There are many resources available for educators to use that will enhance the learning experience for students. Educators must be aware of the laws in place that protect the rights of the authors of these resources. They should also be aware of the laws that allow for the use of these resources in educational settings. By learning about both, they can make informed decisions on how to incorporate copywritten materials into their classroom teaching in a way that is within accordance of the law.
References
Dschrimsher. (2010, February 10). Fair Use Photo Story [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxGiV6iKw_g
Tepp, S. & Oman, R. (2015). A 21st Century Copyright Office: The Conservative Case for Reform. Hudson Institute, Center for the Economics of the Internet. Retrieved from https://learn-us-east-1-prod-fleet01-xythos.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/5c082f78d4ba4/2595237?response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%2A%3DUTF-8%27%27Hudson%2520Institute_White%2520Paper%25282%2529.pdf&response-content-type=application%2Fpdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Date=20191203T165838Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Expires=21600&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAZH6WM4PLTYPZRQMY%2F20191203%2Fus-east- 1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Signature=969811af5bf50ba6961c3022a2b5001c53ddc939e3bbbf72647be1343ee5bdf4
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