According to the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education, "Educators can rely on 'Rules of Thumb' for fair use guidance" which is simply a myth. They go on to state that basically there aren't any "cut-and-dried rules" that state what can and can't be used according to Fair Use like we originally thought. Before we were told that we could only use a portion of a song, or only so many words from a poem for it to still be considered Fair Use. The article says that really the Fair Use guidelines are "situational" and one reading the guidelines should take them as simply that....a guide to help you make a decent decision as to whether or not you are going against what is considered fair use.
There really isn't an exact science to Fair Use because it was really meant for allowing the user to decide what is or isn't Fair Use according to the guidelines stated in the Fair Use policies. The code of practices is not telling you the limits either. It describes how things "should be done" and then lets the user decide based on situational experiences.
I can't find anything regarding Fair Use in relation to my school or district. As the media specialist I need to make sure that my teachers understand that importance of copyright/fair use and how it applies to the classroom. Of course it is easier to do a quick Google image search and bam....slap it on a presentation calling it 'yours'. There are ways to go about things that adhere to the policies, they might not always be the quickest or easiest route, but it is the safe one. If we as educators can't follow the rules due to lack of time or patience, what do we expect out of out students?
Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education. Media Education Lab. Retrieved from http://mediaeducationlab.com/sites/mediaeducationlab.com/files/CodeofBestPracticesinFairUse_0.pdf
There are so many blurred lines when it comes to Fair Use policies. But I loved what you put at the end of your post, " If we as educators can't follow the rules due to lack of time or patience, what do we expect out of our students?" As media specialists it is our responsibility to make sure the people in our school are following fair use and copyright policies correctly. I don't want to be the copyright police walking around my building but we do have to tell our staff members and students what is right and what can't be used.
ReplyDeleteFair Use is one of those things that some of our teachers would just rather not have to deal with. As a future media specialist, I think it will be my responsibility to ensure that teachers and students know about copyright policies. The only instance that I have seen in school is when students do research and the teachers make sure that they cite their sources. I don't think our students really understand why they are being made to do this. It is not often that someone will stop and explain to the students why it is important to give credit to the author of a work. I do have to say that my mentor is very diligent about explaining this to students during her own lessons. As far as Fair Use goes, our teachers seem to have an idea of how much or what they can use. It had always been my assumption that as long as I was using it for "educational" purposes, then I was okay.
ReplyDeleteFair Use is so vague and you some it up in you post well. To me it seems as if a person is planning on using music for example, then they better have done their research on their particular "situation" and justify its use prior to being approached with any issues. Being prepared for the worse but expecting the best is how I would approach fair use.
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