Copyright, Fair Use & Online Safety

Before you read this post...
Go to THIS WEBSITE and take the Copyright & Fair Use Quiz. See how YOU do! (Careful...the wording is tricky...kinda like the copyright/fair use laws!)

What I've Learned So Far...Copyright & Fair Use...

This website, a "Cheat Sheet" if you will, helped me tremendously (now that I think about it...I hope I'm not infringing on somebody else's rights!) and I would suggest it for others that are confused by everything going on right now.
The Guidelines for Teachers and Students break down in to 4 factors to consider. (Although the current copyright laws are STILL not up to date with digital copies and file sharing (like mp3s) they STILL use them to determine "fair use").
The ones I found interesting were the third and fourth:
-How much of the content you share is a big factor in determining whether or not it is "fair use" but not always the ONLY factor. The more you use the less likely you are to fall under the "fair use" criteria but there are cases in which, for example, a teacher can share an entire movie with his/her class and not get in trouble.
-HOW it is shared goes in to play in order to determine whether or not showing an entire movie is validated under "fair use" or why it isn't.

How I Feel About It...
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^ That is how I feel.
I'm not going to lie. This stuff pissed me off. I have taken an integrating technology into education class before and there are things we learned the last few days that do NOT agree with what I learned in my past  class. However, it may be that I'm getting confused by the wording. The first few questions of the quiz I knew right off the bat...the others...not so much!
I do feel like some of the laws are a bit "dramatic." Having to get written permission to show a Disney movie on a rainy day in an elementary class seems a bit much. In Oklahoma, we actually learned about a case in which a 2nd grader told her dad after school that they had watched Lion King at the end of their class. Catch was, the little girl's daddy worked for Disney...the school got slapped with a lawsuit because the teacher did not use it for educational use and did not ask permission/get a valid copy first - she just brought her own personal copy. YIKES! I mean, who knows...could I get sued for just using the NAMES? Oh wait, this is for EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES so I should be good...I think. *fingers crossed!*


Let me know YOUR thoughts after going through all this...I'm interested to hear BOTH educator's opinions, future educator's opinions, parental opinions, or just plain opinions!! Let me know which category you fall under - even if it's more than one!
Thank you!!

Until next time!
-lkh! (what can I say? I really like the "!" :)


Additional information:
“Copyright for Educators” at http://www.copyrighteducation.org/ hosted by KOCE-TV. You can find series youtube video clips at YouTube.com
Below is a video clip of “Copyright for Educators (Multimedia Guidelines)”