Safety and Responsibility (Continued)
Responsible Participation
Copyright Law
Copyright law protects an original work from unauthorized use by others. It is relevant to the topics covered in this resource in two ways. First, copyright deals with questions students and educators may have about using resources created by others (e.g., music, cartoons, images) in their own blogs, wikis, or other Internet-based products. Second, copyright law recognizes student products as original work and grants their work protection.
Matters of copyright law are complex and we can tell you from experience that it can be very difficult to identify sources that offer concrete recommendations. Most prefer to offer "guidelines" because differences in circumstances can matter a great deal and the author of advice can never anticipate all of the circumstances under which advice may be applied.
An important example of this complexity that is very important to what students contribute to the participatory web is "fair use". The doctine of fair use represents a situation specific exception to the assumption that every bit of the content created by another is completely protected from use by others. Sometimes, small amounts of the work created by another can be copied without violating copyright. You may have taken advantage of this provision if you have made a copy of a journal article in the library. Fair use allows educators/students to use small amounts of material, for limited amounts of time, in ways that do not damage the commercial opportunities of authors/creators. Classroom educators tend to be familiar with the general guidelines of fair use.
We do not recommend educators assume that fair use guidelines can be applied to educator or student content. Others may reach a different conclusion. Our position is based on the positions expressed in the recent Technology, Education and Copyright Harmonization Act (TEACH Act). This act was developed to improve distance education by extending "fair use" opportunities to those involved in online learning. While expanding what is allowed in online education, the TEACH Act (see the American Library Association [resource page]) also establishes limitations that exclude most participatory applications.
Here is the way we understand the difference between fair use in the classroom or as allowed by the TEACH act and what is allowed in most of the applications we describe here. The TEACH act requires that access be limited to those registered for a class and that provisions be in place to exclude others. Participatory web authoring amounts to "publication". It is not the limited creation of learning materials for students or a project for the teacher; the content is intended for a broader audience. Authors writing for general publication are expected to either generate or optain permission for the content presented.
So, authoring for the Internet must be done in a different way than authoring products to be viewed in the classroom or taken home to parents. This is not necessarily a bad thing. When possible it make sense to us that students write as much of their own content as possible and create or capture their own images. The participatory web, as we view it, is about learning by doing.
Resources to Explain Copyright
Copyright information from the Library of Congress for students. [Copyright Mystery]
Creative Commons For Useful Resources
So, what about those situations in which students cannot take the photograph they need? The participatory web sometimes offers a solution to this situation. Those who create content sometimes allow their material to be used under carefully defined conditions. This approach, called a Creative Commons License, does not require the author to give up copyright, but allows the author to give up some of the protections afforded by copyright.
How do I find resources made available under a creative commons license?
The easiest way to locate content you can incorporate in your own products is to first go to what we would describe as a creative commons search portal ([Search Creative Commons]). From this web address, it is possible to search repositories of different types of content (images, video, text) specifically for content offered under a creative commons license. Authors/content creators offer material with different expectations so it is important to examine individual sites carefully looking for a statement identifying the author's expectations (more on this topic below).
An example - using images from Flickr
We assume that locating and using images would represent one of the most common opportunities offered by creative commons.
Flickr is a popular site for storing, displaying, and sometimes sharing images. Many individuals who use Flickr store their images as "public". This designation in combination with tags or text information associated with the image allows interested individuals to search for and view images on topics of interest. The best way to understand the potential of ([Flickr]) is to visit the site and enter search terms related to topics or places of interest to you.
The fact that you can view an image of interest does not allow you to use that image. Look carefully on the page containing and describing the image. You should be able to locate information about the rights claimed by the photographer. It may say "all rights reserved" or it may say "some rights reserved" (this will be a link - selecting this link will display the rights claimed by the author).
Here is a specific example
This image can be located at this URL -[http://flickr.com/photos/grabe/417773825/]
The limitations under which you might use images are listed as:
- attribution,
- noncommercial,
- no derivative works, and
- share alike.
Attribution means you must provide a citation for the image in any product that includes the image.
Noncommercial means you must not use the image in a product for which there is compensation.
No derivative works means you must use the image "as is" and not modify it or combine it with other images into a composite.
Share alike means you must be willing to share content you create incorporating the content offered under creative content expectations under the same creative content provisions.
The creator of content may expect any or all of these requirements.
A complete list of creative commons "expectations" is available at the [Creative Commons site].
Attribution - provide a citation
Students have typically learned to cite books and journals, but may not have learned how to cite online content. Here is one way to include a citation associated with a Flickr image. This method uses the APA approach for online content.
General format
photographer (date taken) imagename, collectionname (photostream name), date accessed, URL.
It may be difficult to identify all of the elements included in this format. While this is our picture, as far as we know, only our last name appears on the Flickr site. Our recommended citation for this image would look like this:
Grabe. (March 11, 2007). kauai sunset, grabe's photostream, Accessed July 23, 2007, Available http://flickr.com/photos/grabe/417773825/.
By the way, the content you are viewing here is not a creative commons resource. As the content creators we expect those interested in our writing to visit this web site in order to view our creative work. Our interest in participatory authoring does not require that all content we create be given away without expections.
Creative Commons Resources