Blog Posting for Week of September 19 again

Blog posting for the Week of September 19, 2011

Quote:

“Media literacy education can only flourish with a robust understanding of fair use” (The Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education, 3).

Reaction to the Questions:

1. Can students upload their multimedia projects to YouTube?

ANSWER:  Yes, students can upload their multimedia projects to YouTube and this is supported in The Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education. In The Code, Principle #5 supports this practice by noting “Educators should work with learners to make a reasoned decision about distribution that reflects sound pedagogy and ethical values.  In some cases, widespread distribution of students’ work (via the Internet, for example) is appropriate.  If student work that incorporates, modifies, and re-presents existing media content meets the transformativeness standard, it can be distributed to wide audiences under the doctrine of fair use” (13).

2. Are there limitations to the amount of pictures or length of music or video that can be used in a multimedia project?

ANSWER:  The Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education notes that a “rule of proportionality needs to be considered.  The Code further notes, “Educators’ and students’ fair use rights extend to the portions of copyrighted works that they need to accomplish their educational goals - and sometimes even to small or short works in their entirety” (10).  According to Copyright in an Electronic Environment accessed from http://www.ncpublicschools.org/copyright1.htm, the following fair use guidelines should be implemented for multimedia:

·         music – up to 10% of a copyrighted musical composition, but no more than 30 seconds/up to 10% of a body of sound recording, but no more than 30 seconds;

·         video – (motion media) up to 10% of a copyrighted work or three minutes, which ever is less/clip cannot be altered in any way; and

·         pictures – a photograph or illustration may be used in its entirety/no more than five images of an artist’s or photographer’s work/when using a collection, no more than 10% or no more than 15 images, whichever is less.

3. Do you need to request permission from the original creator in order to use copyrighted material in multimedia project for school related assignment?

ANSWER:  According to The Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education, Principle #4 states “Students strengthen media literacy skills by creating messages and using such symbolic forms as language, images, sound, music, and digital media to express and share meaning” (12).  The Code suggests that students should properly attribute material by giving full bibliographic information when available.  In addition, the Copyright Act addresses uses such as educational issues that add important pedagogical value to referenced media objects.  The key to this issue is the “transformativeness” of the new work that was created.  

References:

http://www.ncpublicschools.org/copyright1.html

http://mediaeducationlab.com/sites/mediaeducationlab.com/files/CodeofBestPracticesinFairUse_0.pdf

Related Resource:

I found a YouTube video that is approximately 5 minutes in length that details fair use and appropriate ways to use information that you find that does not infringe upon copyright laws.  This video gives many examples that are very helpful in understanding fair use of various types of multimedia.

The link to the video Fair Use & Copyrights is:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GidwzOYiPl0