I was extremely frustrated when reading these articles because I felt like the policy of Fair Use is so poorly defined, making it difficult for people to really know whether they are legal in their actions or not. You are never fully safe from the law unless you directly contact the author of the material and get their permission. Otherwise, there is always the chance that you could be taken to court for copyright infringement. I think this makes it difficult for teachers to be 100% confident that the material that they are handing out to students in class is definitely permissable by the law. It would be extremely time consuming to contact the authors of all of the magazine articles, books, videos, and other forms of media that they use in class. The guidelines need to be more specific, so that teachers can do their job the best that they can.
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Fair use was complicated in the articles because Fair Use is complicated in real life. Whenever using copyrighted materials, there is always a risk taken in putting them on display, especially when they are visible to the public such as on the internet. Case in point: Disney once sued a day care center for painting pictures of Mickey and co. on the walls. However, the general rule I’ve seen is that once people are using copyrighted material to post in the public domain for their own benefit, then it’s not OK, but if it is only being shared in the classroom or in a private setting, it’s permissible.
I agree with both of you. The copyright laws are difficult to navigate and understand, and with all of the materials that we as teachers will need to use in the classroom, I personally think worrying about this could be stressful. I appreciated the 5 principles Rachel came up with. I thought that they seemed accurate and applicable to the classroom. I agree with her as well that students should be taught the rules of fair use and citing sources. I think it is important for students to understand that as teachers when we copy materials (hopefully) we are doing so legally. As a student in middle school I remember several instances where I was sure my teachers were breaking the law to provide copies; there are a couple of instances where I am still not sure that was not the case. As such, I think students should be made aware that as teachers we can copy certain things in limited aspects. Students should not be questioning whether or not their teachers are correctly adhering to copyright law; all that does is allow them to think that they have leeway in what they decide to copy and/or use. Discussing principles of copyright and fair use may also lend to cutting down on basic plagiarism in the classroom. As a whole, I agree that the Fair Use laws should be more specific and easy to understand; however, I doubt that will happen so I think as teachers we need to work together to determine what is and what is not acceptable.
I also agree that what is considered Fair Use can be confusing and complicated. There are many instances that I think are borderline between Fair Use and copyright infringement. After taking the quiz I was suprised by some of the ones I missed because I didnt notice anything blatantly wrong. After reading the articles, it was apparent to me that determing what is considered Fair Use and copyright infringement is based a great deal on the intent of the usage. I think it is important to knowledge the copyright in questionable instances just to be on the safe side.