Kendall Boninti is the Instructional Technology Specialist at Cambridge Rindge & Latin School in Cambridge, MA
Do you teach copyright and fair use to your students? I’m ashamed to admit it, but until a few years ago, I avoided copyright altogether… in my lessons, in my conversations. It just seemed like such a downer. A bunch of negative rules that restrict students' ability to do fun innovative things with music, media, and art. That was until Alida Hanson, the Library Teacher at Weston High School, recommended that I read the book Copyright Clarity: How Fair Use Supports Digital Learning by Renee Hobbs. The book was published a while back, but the information is still relevant today. Hobbs' book opened my eyes to how big media companies intentionally mislead educators into being ultraconservative in the way they practice and teach fair use and copyright. Have you ever seen or used one of those copyright checklists that lays out the “rules” of fair use (i.e. you can only use a certain percentage of a song or video)? Those checklists were often born out of agreements between media companies and assorted educator groups to intentionally limit students’ rights. Not surprisingly these agreements are not based in actual law (Hobbs, 29).
Since reading Hobbs' book, I’ve been working and reworking a lesson on copyright and fair use called “Copyright for Creators.” The goal of the lesson is for students to understand the role of copyright and fair use to support innovation. Together we explore various examples related to fair use and evaluate them. Students learn that copyright is in the US Constitution and that our Founding Fathers believed that a system of copyright was essential to protecting democracy and supporting innovation (Section I, Article 8, U.S. Constitution, 1787). After reviewing the doctrine of fair use, I ask students to think critically about a piece of work that includes copyrighted material. We then decide if it falls under the doctrine of fair use by considering two criteria: Transformativeness and Market Value.
We then watch this video of TwinsthenewTrend listening to Dolly Parton’s song “Jolene” and discuss whether or not the video falls under the doctrine of Fair Use. We examine Shepard Fairey’s Obama HOPE poster, and discuss fair use as it pertains to fashion, food, trending dances on Tik Tok, etc. Then I ask students to work in groups to apply what they have learned about fair use by completing this fun Fair Use quiz. Feedback from students about the lesson has been overwhelmingly positive, with many mentioning that as creators on TikTok and Youtube, etc, the content felt relevant to their lives outside of school.
There is no better time than now to be talking with our students about copyright. The Supreme Court will soon be delivering a verdict on a copyright case that could have large scale implications for artists who draw inspiration from other people’s works. And the advent of AI generated art has generated many ethical questions around ownership and copyright. Does AI generated art like DALL·E, created from large datasets of images on the web, violate copyright? There are endless topics to explore! So if you haven’t given copyright and fair use a fresh look in a while, I highly recommend that you start with Renee Hobbs’ book Copyright Clarity: How Fair Use Supports Digital Learning. It opened my eyes to a world of possibilities.
Before I go, I want to acknowledge that the Copyright for Creators lesson and this article were built off of the ideas of my many fabulous colleagues and former student teachers. Thank you CRLS Library Teacher Emily Houston, CPS Instructional Technology Specialist Ingird Gustafson, Library Teacher Shawnee Sloop, and Library Teacher Danielle Smogard.
- Transformativeness: Transform the copyrighted material in a way that creates something new or gives it a new meaning. Examples: criticism, comment, new reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.
- Market Value: Use copyrighted material in a way that does not substantially affect the market for the original.
We then watch this video of TwinsthenewTrend listening to Dolly Parton’s song “Jolene” and discuss whether or not the video falls under the doctrine of Fair Use. We examine Shepard Fairey’s Obama HOPE poster, and discuss fair use as it pertains to fashion, food, trending dances on Tik Tok, etc. Then I ask students to work in groups to apply what they have learned about fair use by completing this fun Fair Use quiz. Feedback from students about the lesson has been overwhelmingly positive, with many mentioning that as creators on TikTok and Youtube, etc, the content felt relevant to their lives outside of school.
There is no better time than now to be talking with our students about copyright. The Supreme Court will soon be delivering a verdict on a copyright case that could have large scale implications for artists who draw inspiration from other people’s works. And the advent of AI generated art has generated many ethical questions around ownership and copyright. Does AI generated art like DALL·E, created from large datasets of images on the web, violate copyright? There are endless topics to explore! So if you haven’t given copyright and fair use a fresh look in a while, I highly recommend that you start with Renee Hobbs’ book Copyright Clarity: How Fair Use Supports Digital Learning. It opened my eyes to a world of possibilities.
Before I go, I want to acknowledge that the Copyright for Creators lesson and this article were built off of the ideas of my many fabulous colleagues and former student teachers. Thank you CRLS Library Teacher Emily Houston, CPS Instructional Technology Specialist Ingird Gustafson, Library Teacher Shawnee Sloop, and Library Teacher Danielle Smogard.