1. COPYRIGHT AND FAIR USE WITH DIGITAL PHOTOS By: Melissa Snell ITEC 7445

2. WHAT IS COPYRIGHT?  To qualify for copyright, an item must be in a fixed format such as a movie, song or picture. An idea does not qualify for copyright.  Copyright protects most items for 70 years past the author’s death. There are a few exceptions to this.  Copyright is secured when the work is created. An author does not have to register their item with the Copyright Office for it to be protected.  Fair Use guidelines help teachers and the academic world use pieces of copyrighted materials and works without a penalty.

3. RECENT COPYRIGHT LAWS  In 1998, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), was made to help address current issues with digital copyright.  In 2002, the TEACH Act, Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization Act, was made. This act was made to allow academic institutions the use of copyrighted materials under certain circumstances. Academic institutions must meet certain requirements to be able to use the TEACH act in their institution.  Regardless of the laws that are in place, the issues of Fair Use and copyright are not set in stone, and one must use their best judgment when deciding whether they are committing copyright infringement.

4. COPYRIGHT & ONLINE IMAGES  I chose to research copyright, fair use, and the use of online images. With the creation of many projects and websites in my classroom this is a topic I am very interested in.  When making projects in the classroom using PowerPoint or Keynote, it is fine for my students to use any pictures they find on the Internet, if the project is not being published. The problems arise when this type of project is published on the Internet, and it includes pictures that someone else has copyrighted.  This is something that must be dealt with and taught to all students. With the push to move projects and learning to a LoTi level of 5, student work and projects must be published. I believe that as a teacher, I should teach my students how to use photos correctly for all projects, regardless of whether or not they are being published.

5. ONLINE PHOTO GUIDELINES  The court is pretty firm about the fact that a photographer decides the first time an image is made public. So this means, don’t find pictures a photographer has never uploaded and upload them for use without permission.  Part of the Fair Use Laws talks about the amount of work taken, and obviously, less is best. How often will you want part of a photo though?  One needs to understand that copyright and plagiarism are two different things. If you use a photograph from the web and give attribution to where it came from or who took it, it still does not make it okay, unless you have permission from the creator.

6. HELPFUL HINTS  Always remember to ask yourself why you are using the image. If you are using it for criticism, comments, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research you are most likely okay.  It is never okay for you to use an image for something that will make you money or reduce the market value of the photo.  Using a thumbnail picture, and then having the thumbnail picture link to the actual picture can be okay in some situations.  Saving a picture in low resolution can actually be worse. Think about how mad someone would be to see that you took their picture, and then made it look horrible!

7. TO PLAY IT SAFE  To make sure you are using Internet photos in a legal way, without infringing on copyright rules, I suggest buying images. There are many very cheap websites where you can buy images cheaply. You can also use clip art from programs that you are using or upload your own photos.  If using images for teaching in the classroom there is much more leeway than trying to make your own personal website look pretty. When students are making projects that will be published, don’t risk using photos that you have not bought or cannot be freely used.

8. WHERE CAN I BUY IMAGES CHEAPLY ?  http://www.shutterstock.com/ http://www.shutterstock.com/  http://www.dreamstime.com/ http://www.dreamstime.com/  http://photobucket.com/images/online/ http://photobucket.com/images/online/  http://us.fotolia.com/ http://us.fotolia.com/  http://www.stockfreeimages.com/ http://www.stockfreeimages.com/  http://depositphotos.com/ http://depositphotos.com/

9. SCENARIO ONE  Your students are doing a taste test of types of cola for a science project. When they are making their final project, a Weebly site with their findings, they want to add pictures of each type of cola they used in the experiment. They go to the manufacturers’ sites, right click on the photos they want, and copy the pictures to their website.  Is this considered fair use?

10. ANSWER  Yes, you should be covered under fair use, but remember nothing is set in stone!  The owner’s rights should be minimally affected, as the photo does not substitute for the actual product.  The photos are being used for educational purpose and as a form of commenting or research, covered under fair use and TEACH.  The Weebly site would be for the benefit of the public, a main purpose of the fair use policy.

11. SCENARIO TWO  The students in a school running club are very interested in running and decide to start a website and blog on hiking trails and running events in your area. When making their website they find some really neat pictures on www.trails.com. They think that some of them would look great on their website too. They right click, copy and paste some of the pictures from this website onto their club website. There are tons of pictures on the website and they only copy 3.www.trails.com  Is this considered fair use?

12. ANSWER  This one is tough. The students are working on something that is extracurricular, and it is not related to actual academic work they are doing at school. The reason why they are making the website does not fall neatly into one of the categories of fair use (criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research).  One could probably fight for it, and the owners of the www.trails.com may never notice that the students used their pictures, but I would still venture to say that the safest route would be for the students or school to buy the images or use pictures that they have personally taken for their website.www.trails.com

13. SCENARIO THREE  Kindergarten students are studying the five senses and the parts of the body. Students are working to make a simple Keynote with each of the senses. Their teacher found pictures from various websites, copied them, and cropped out pictures of eyes, noses, mouths, ears, eyebrows, etc. The students are using the pieces of pictures for each page, and on the last page they are combining several pictures to make a funny face.  Is this considered fair use?

14. ANSWER  Yes, this activity should be considered fair use and be covered under the TEACH Act.  Only portions of pictures are being used, and one would have a very hard time figuring out if a piece of their picture was used. The pieces of pictures no longer resemble the original picture.  The portions of the pictures are being used for the purpose of teaching in an academic environment.  The Keynotes are being used and show just in the school. Even if they did post them on a class website, they should still be safe from copyright infringement. To be even safer, they could use pictures they had taken of the kids or teachers in the school, if they were going to post to the web.

15. CONCLUSION  The areas of copyright and fair use are very complicated. There are many guidelines, but not many specifics. The laws that exist today, exist to help balance the needs of teachers and the copyright owners.  As a teacher, I feel confident in using most works as part of a spontaneous lesson, to help show my students something or explain a concept to them.  When doing projects and making websites, I plan to only use photos the school has bought, or photos I have taken myself, unless photos of something specific are needed to comment, report, or critique a certain item.