MEDIA RESTRICTIONS & LAWS

           Understanding the legal restriction for multimedia resources can be challenging. Gone are the days when teachers believed that because material was being used in the classroom there was no need to consider the source. The four areas that educators must understand when considering a resource are copyright laws, fair use laws, public domain, and Creative Commons.

            Copyright Laws are a form of protection grounded in the U.S. Constitution and granted by law for original works (Butler, 2016). In a classroom, teachers should be mindful of the materials that they receive or give to other teachers. When working in Professional Learning Communities (PLC’s), many times teachers will acquire a resource and share it with the group. When referring to students, there should be digital citizenship lessons that clearly explain the copyright and properly documenting resources used in their artifacts.

            The Fair Use Laws consider four factors when determining if a copyright was violated. The factors are what was the purpose and character of the uses; the nature of the copyrighted work; the amount and substantiality of the portion taken and the effect of the use on the market (Butler, 2016). As technology becomes integrated into classrooms there are more questions about fair use and copyright. Creating multimedia presentations for face-to-face instruction could be considered fair use if the material is the source is credited (Starr, 2010).

Public domain is generally work that is no longer under copyright or was never under copyright protection (Butler, 2016). If it not clear, there are several other guidelines that teachers can reference to determine if material is classified as public domain. One example would be that a Shakespeare play may fall under public domain, but the script for a movie version would not be public domain (Butler, 2016).

            Creative Commons is easier to understand because the material is clearly labeled and there is a webpage devoted to the licenses and the terms of use for each license (Creative Commons, n.d.). According to their website, the Creative Commons is a way for creators to give a simple, standardized way to grant permission for their creative work. In the classroom, Creative Commons’ symbols allow teachers to easily see that Khan Academy material have a Creative Commons license and how it can be legally used in the classroom.