In reference to copyright, what are the Principles of Fair Use for media literacy education?
The terms “media literacy” and “fair use” are two terms that tend to cause confusion among many people, including educators, administrators, and media specialists.
According to the Center for Social Media, media literacy is the capacity to access, analyze, evaluate, and communicate using a wide variety of forms of media such as television, newspapers, movies, print, images, websites, music, blogs, etc.
Fair use refers to the part of copyright law that says that, under certain conditions, copyrighted media material can be used by someone else without paying royalties. This means that it is okay to use copyrighted material if it provides educational, social, or cultural benefits to the user.
Fair use is widely used in the world today. For example, historians regularly use quotes from other writing and textual sources; scholars illustrate cultural issues with textual, visual, and musical examples; and the news regularly makes reference to films, classic television programs, archived images and songs.
In the educational community, copyright laws are often misunderstood on the subject of media literacy and fair use; therefore, educators fear being sued for copyright infringement. This misunderstanding of the law interferes with the genuine purpose of copyright- to promote the advancement of knowledge through balancing the rights of owners and users.
Following is a list of five practices where the doctrine of fair use clearly applies:
1.) Educators may use materials designed for entertainment or persuasive or advocacy purposes if they are a clear part of an instructional goal.
2.) The principles of fair use apply to not only school settings but also non-school based programs.
3.) The principles of fair use concern inappropriate use of material; not how they were acquired. It doesn’t matter if it’s an over-the air broadcast, a personal copy, or a rented or borrowed copy as long as the material is used to enhance critical thinking and promote learning.
4.) Fair use of materials is subject to the “rule of proportionality” which means only the part of the media that is needed to accomplish the learning goal is considered fair use.
Five Principles to Guide Fair Use:
1.) Educators can choose illustrative materials from a full range of copyrighted media resources. These resources must be germane to the lesson and only the part needed to accomplish the learning goal should be used.
2.) Educators can integrate copyrighted material into curriculum material such as books, tests, workbooks, podcasts, videos, websites and other materials designed for learning. The educator must provide attribution for the material, and, again, can only include what is necessary for achieving the educational goal.
3.) Educators can share effective examples of teaching about media and meaning with one another including lessons and resource materials. When educators create materials, their materials should be able to be seen or used by anyone they choose to share with.
4.) Students or learners can incorporate, modify, or re-present media objects in their own classroom work assignments as long as they can justify how the material is transformed or re-purposed to show critical analysis.
5.) Student work that incorporates media content (that has met the transformative standard) can be distributed to wide audiences.
MYTHS:
There are many myths concerning fair use, but the one that hits most closely to home to me is that “fair use could get me sued.” I know at my school, there is a great misunderstanding about fair use. We are heavily cautioned about using any movie clips or television program clips in our lessons. Many teachers have been asked to not do these even if they have an educational goal in mind. It is very, very unlikely that any lawsuit would be brought against an educator over the use of media in the educational process. Many educators might confuse a “cease and desist” letter from a copyright owner as a threat of being sued. Because of this, many quality lessons that could be even better with media examples are often pushed to the wayside.
Another myth that is prevalent is that “if I don’t make money off of it then it is fair use.” This is stretching it to the extreme. Fair use applies ONLY to material that can be re-purposed to create critical thinking and learning. You can’t show an entire movie if only a portion of it is intended for learning.
After researching this, I looked at my own media center handbook and was shocked to see that there was not a single mention of “fair use” anywhere in the handbook. The entire copyright section of our handbook addresses photocopying, videotaping, and computer software. Wow! No wonder there is so much confusion!
Reference:
Center for Social Media. (2012). Code of best practices in fair use for media literacy education. Retrieved March 15, 2012, from http://mediaeducationlab.com/code-best-practices-fair-use-media-literacy-education-0.
I can remember when I was planning with my fellow literature teacher on the lesson for the following week and we came to an issue with copyright. We wanted to use a worksheet that we found in a book that was protected by copyright. Our plan was to give every student his/her own copy (so we were looking at making 300 copies). It was strictly for educational purposes but we ended up not using the assignment because we were unsure if we would be breaking the law. I agree that the laws are very confusing! I feel like I have a decent grip on the rules regarding movies, pictures, and photocopying but not with print material for classroom use. I wish I had known then what I know now (but isn’t that how everything is).
ReplyDeleteI am glad to read an explanation about fair use. Just like you, I checked our media handout and there's no mention of fair use. Copyright has a section, but not fair use. The general practice that I hear among educators is that we hope we don't get thrown into Copyright Jail! It seems that most of these rules are more lenient with education. I was interested to read the 5 principles you listed to guide fair use. Those explained a lot to me, although I never feel like I'm really sure on any of this. The media specialists are the ones in a school who are considered the most knowledgeable about these matters and are often asked for advice.
ReplyDeleteThe word ‘lawsuit’ will most often get anyone attention. I think that movie producers trust teachers to act accordingly when using their movies as educational tools. You are certainly right that if the teachers are not informed properly, this confusion with the fair use practices will only continue. In the near future, teachers will have to explain in details how certain parts of a scene will be used and which objective this scene relates to.
ReplyDeleteThis will make it easy for teachers to introduce the lesson and prepare students for the learning objective. It is also important that administrators know how long the movie will be viewed to ensure the movie is not being used to “kill time.” I am glad that movies are allowed to be seen in classrooms for instructional purposes, they can be useful for helping visual and auditory learners.
I have always believed that you would be sued for using copyrighted material illegally. I guess if you persisted in using material despite a "cease and desist" letter, then you could be sued. I feel that generally educators are not scofflaws, and that, in most cases, the educator has used something inadvertently.
ReplyDeleteThe myth that you can use anything as long as you are not making money from it is one I have long heard espoused. However,as you stated it is not necessarily true. The first purpose for re-purposing copyrighted material must be education.
I agree with your last comment. I think there is very little emphasis on "fair use" and too much on copyright laws. My media specialist stresses that we use very little copyrighted material when she provides the copyright update each year. Perhaps this phenomenon occurs because schools are so eager to avoid litigation or even the appearance of wrongdoing.
You did a good job explaining copyright and fair use. There are so many misconceptions and confused thought over it, in education and in society, in general. I think you are right that often there is a lot of focus on Copyright, but not as much on Fair Use. I think this is because a lot of media specialists do not really understand Fair Use and would rather just say don't use anything copyrighted. You helped make the four points to remember about fair use really understandable. These are points that can be easily explained to teachers and even to older students. I think it is important for students to realize that copyright law is not there to hurt them or keep them from getting music or videos, but to help the people that create the music and videos and give them reason to keep creating it!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your post. I agree, you really explained the concepts of Copyright and Fair Use well. I am getting unconfused(if there is such a word) on the whole topic. As an educator any information I use is to help the students in their learning and understanding of subject matters.
ReplyDeleteMany operate in fear and rule out the use of anything copyrighted, however, is this not why it was created in the first place? Informatio is meant to be shared and talked about and learned from. We should not be afraid, but understand how to use the information provided responsibly whether in or out of the educational realm.
I have to say that not much of this topic is brought up at my school; we hear a little about fair use at the beginning of each school from our main campus media specialist, but other than that, there isn't much discussion. I think that as a media specialist, I would rather have my teachers overly conscience of their use rather than lackadaisical. Throughout each unit, I try to play my students music/songs that fit particular themes and tones, so I do try to be aware of what I am playing and how long I play it, but I know not everyone is. I'm probably not nearly as aware as I should be.
ReplyDeleteYour comment about educators fearing being sued reminded me of something I heard a while back. We had a neighboring county that ran out of math workbooks (or something similar), so a teacher copied the workbook for her students. A parent who happened to work for Xerox saw this when his child brought it home and turned her in for copyright violations. As a parent (maybe it's because I'm a teacher, too), I was blown away by this. She was doing the best she could do with what she had. I guess it's the same as many of topics; there are so many pros and cons to it!
Thanks for sharing the five principles for fair use. These are going to really come in handy. I think I may make several charts to post in my teacher workrooms and the media center. I agree that there is a lot of confusion on this topic. Many media center policy and procedure handbooks are like your schools and only address photocopying, videotaping, and software. As media specialists, I feel that it is our job to make our staff aware of the fair use guidelines and principles. This will surely clear up a lot of confusion.
ReplyDelete