Week 6 Thing 15

Copyright Laws-- Right??? Copywrong...

I recently finished a class on copyright law and when my class was over, I truly believe my colleagues and myself were as confused-- if not more confused--by the copyright laws. If as Davis Guggenheim (Academy Award-winning director) states, “Even most legal experts who work on the issue have to roll the dice trying to interpret where the current line of fair use is drawn,” how can we teachers make the right choice. I know I thought that as long as I was using something for teaching—it was part of fair use… but that does not always hold.

Larry Lessig talks about people taking and recreating to say things differently in How Creativity is Being Strangled by the Law “People produce for the love of what they are doing not for the love of money.” I like Lessig’s argument that competition can create a balance… just as with the history of ASCAP and BMI demonstrated.

Both videos are well worth watching—several times. I love the non-Disney Video A Fair(y) Use Tale directed by Eric Faden.

The Creative Commons concept is amazing and so in line with the collaborative nature of Web 2.0. And, after watching the short video on how Creative Commons works -- the very first item I downloaded to read... The 2008 Horizon Report ... was copyrighted in the usual manner and then permission was granted under Creative Commons to replicate the report for noncommercial purposes.


Guggenheim, D. Forward to Bound by Law? Retrieved on June 27, 2008 from http://www.law.duke.edu/cspd/comics/digital.php