Copyrights
The acknowledgement of protecting creative and intellect property has been around since 1886 with the Berne Convention. The convention developed three basic principles, a series of minimum protection standards and provisions for developing countries which wish to use the principles.
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is the administer of treaties including Berne Convention. Its mission is to promote innovation and creativity for economic, social and cultural development for all countries, through a balanced and effective international intellectual property system.
Copyright Act of 1976, in the United States, declares the owners’ legal right to reproduce, display, transmit, or modify work they have created. It is illegal for anyone to violate any of the rights provided by the copyright law to the owner of copyright. In section 107 of the Act is the Fair Use Doctrine, allows use of copyright material done for a limited time and transformative purposes, as to comment on, criticize, parody a copyrighted work, or to add something new to the material.
The following terms and definition regarding copyright and plagiarism to understand, follow and teach others.
Copyright Infringement: It is an unlawfully use of materials protected by a copyright. The FBI will prosecute with fines and/or jail time for copyright infringements, this includes all materials; written and media. So, you need to stop copying and selling movies. It wasn't that long-ago Musicians had a go to jail campaign to teach teens it was against the law to pirate music. It's the Law.
The effective use of copyrighted materials enhances the teaching and learning process.” (Hobbs, 2010).
Copyrighted materials have always been involved in education and learning with textbooks, novels, journal articles, photos and sheet music. Our job as educators is to teach proper use of the materials, to eliminate copy/paste mentality and to use correct methods in citing works or references. Learners need to understand the fair use of copyright materials, to ask permission for use, and purchasing materials may be necessary.
Our digital babies and toddlers are continuing learning with educational channels like Sprout and multimedia products by Baby Einstein. These children have now entered grade school and can work multi-digital devices upon entering school.
It’s now up to the teachers to educate the correct use of the said digital devices and information taking off the internet. To start teaching these early age learners, the correct use of digital devices, social media, finding and using proper sites for correct information. Learners should understand that not all information on the internet is real, that we must check the sources. Even well-known sources can be deceiving, we are learning everyday about fake news coming from supposedly reliable sources in big name news companies, ABC and NBC. The fake news and information has brought on the Fact Checkers and Snopes organizations.
Plagiarism: It is having good ethics not to copy someone's work or intellectual property. It is so easy to go to the Internet, copy and paste the information into a paper or project. Instead use your own critical thinking and communication skills to express your own thoughts on the subject.
The use of dash notes, having the students develop an outline, using only bullets and not allowing students to write complete sentences. Teaching students to place the knowledge into their own words and thus not for word for word, plagiarizing the material.
Teaching students of all ages on the correct use of materials, copyright and plagiarism no-no’s. Giving our students creative commons and helpful sites to use to set-off projects with free images, photos and royalty free music sites.
Teaching and enforcing the use APA format to cite all works; written materials, images and sounds properly. TurnItIn and Grammarly are great tools when grading papers for grammar and plagiarism checks. As an instructor, it gives me more time to concentrate on the content versus spelling/grammar and plagiarism.
Attribution: It is giving credit where credit is due. "Giving credit where credit is due is a very rewarding habit to form. Its rewards are inestimable." Loretta Young
Transformation: It is used to determine copyright or fair use applies to sharing quotes from movies, books, and speeches. To save face, money, and time is easy by citing your references and /or obtaining permission for use of music, photos, and words.
References
Hobbs, R., (2010). Copyright clarity: How fair use supports digital learning. Corwin, A SAGE Company.
Wang, A. B., (2017). ABC News apologizes for ‘serious error’ in Trump report and suspends Brian Ross for four weeks. Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2017/12/03/abc-news-apologizes-for-serious-error-in-trump-report-suspends-brian-ross-for-four-weeks/?utm_term=.0f5f76dd407f
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