Week #7 - Teachers & Copyright

Teachers and copyright … what an extremely useful topic we covered this week! There are so many rules out there pertaining to this very subject. It's interesting to know what is considered "fair use" and what is not … and it's not as cut and dry as you would think. It would probably be much easier if the powers that be would just say "you can't copy anything." but instead there's a big list of how much and which parts you can legally copy and use. I think the thing I found most interesting was the fact that you can copy and use some material in class without consent, but only for one class. You can't continue to use it in ensuing courses and semesters. The premise of this is that if you plan to continue using the material, you should make an effort to get permission. I guess the first time is chalked up to needing it last minute and not having enough time to seek proper permission. This makes perfect sense to me, but makes me wonder about some of the instructors I've had. I know they've been using the same handouts for semester after semester, and although they are always careful to give credit where credit is due (they include the proper citations, etc.), I wonder how many of them have actually sought the actual permission to do so. Hmm …