Bethany Taylor Current Issues Chapter 12 Fair Use In order to engage my students in the Africa study, I have chosen

to use other educational materials outside of the regular classroom textbook. The materials I have integrated into the classroom include the movie, The Ghost and the Darkness, along with a PBS special I taped called Clash of the Cultures: the Masai in Kenya. Additionally, I purchased a National Geographic CD that features several of their magazines, which I used to print and copy pictures of the 1930s Masai rituals. Throughout the unit of instruction, my students seemed engaged in their learning and have even done some of their own research on the topic since they know the difference between a banana and plantains. Fair Use refers to the passing of the Copyright Act of 1976 by Congress which provided a set of Classroom Guidelines negotiated by representatives of the publishing industry and the education profession (Tiene & Ingram, 2001, p. 342). As a result, this Act has determined certain cases for which Fair Use of materials for educational purposes without reimbursement to the creator or publisher. I do not feel as though my unit of instruction has compromised the Fair Use copyright policy. Fair Use states that: First of all, the material must be used strictly for educational purposes. Secondly, only a limited amount of work may be used. The general guideline is that if less than ten percent of the overall work is used, then this is considered Fair Use. Another issue is whether the most essential or unique part of the work is being used and if not, this is less likely to be a copyright infringement (Tiene & Ingram, 2001, p. 342).

The use of my material was solely and strictly for instructional purposes. I used these materials to engage my students and give them a global perspective that the textbook was not able to provide. All these materials were used only in the classroom and for the furthering of my students education. Secondly, even though the school district does not own a copy of the National Geographic magazine that the pictures came from, I own my own copy. Furthermore, the Fair Use policy states that I cannot use any more than ten percent and not the most unique part. I argue that I have not violated either of these premises given that I only used part of the magazine, and using pictures from the National Geographic magazine is not using something that is unique to that magazine. National Geographic magazine is primarily composed of pictures. As for the movie that I showed in class, I did pay for the rental out of my own money and I did not gain any fiscal gain from showing this movie to my students. Many of these Fair Use guidelines are open to interpretation, especially when applied to education and unfortunately, this is one of the issues that is up for debate. Showing a movie which is regularly intended for entertainment for educational purposes is open for interpretation under the guidelines, as is renting a movie and showing it to a large group of people. However, the latter scenario is subjective even regarding showing a movie within ones own household. Many questions regarding, Fair Use and copyright infringements would depend upon how the copyright laws have been interpreted by the legal system. This is why it is sometimes hard for educators to know for certain when they are infringing about copyright laws (Tiene & Ingram, 2001, p. 346). Even if teachers did research specific Fair Use guidelines, there are so many different interpretations of the rules that a specific scenario would be difficult to determine whether or not it falls under Fair Use (Tiene & Ingram, 2001). I also showed some video clips of a PBS special during my class. Fair Use policy states that:

The Guidelines for Off-Air Recording of Broadcast Programming were adopted by Congress in 1979. They stipulate that recordings of commercial television transmissions can be shown for instructional purposes in a classroom if they are used with ten days of the broadcast. They can be kept for examination by the teacher for another 45 days, after which they must be erased. If the programming is considered instructional, rather than mainly for purposes of entertainment, recordings can be used for teaching purposes for one year and then must be erased (Tiene & Ingram, 2001, p. 352). The recording from PBS that I showed in my classroom was aired on television over a year ago. Therefore, I am not within this guideline. However, the school has paid for a contract with PBS so showing the program in my classroom should be acceptable. This is another issue which is open to interpretation. In addition, I only showed part of it, as long as it is less than ten percent of the entire broadcast, I did not violate any copyright laws. Some of these issues about whether a significant amount of work was used may depend on how the material was initially copyrighted. It may be specified by legal contract (Tiene & Ingram, 2001, p. 345). Therefore, I will need to look at the contract that our school district has with PBS in order to ensure that I am within the framework of Fair Use policies. Furthermore, I do not believe that I have violated copyrights since this is nonfiction work; it is not as protected as is a fictional work. Non-fiction work is often based on previous work which the authors have researched, and therefore is usually not considered as original as a creative piece of writing, composing, producing, etc. (Tiene & Ingram, 2001, p. 343). The information that I have presented to my students through video and pictures is based on several others research and the pictures I shared with my students may be belong to a photographer who granted rights to National Geographic to use in their magazine.

Lastly, these materials were used in order to engage my students, and to take advantage of a teachable moment since I work in an urban area with a large African American student population. Therefore, I concluded that using more dynamic materials rather than a textbook help my students to become more interested in their heritage and therefore in social studies. The Fair Use policy supports this conclusion by stating that, How the instructor uses the work is also a factor in determining whether Fair Use applies. Spontaneity is sometimes an issue, in that educators may use materials without prior permission from the holder of the copyright, if to wait for it would result in the loss of a teachable moment (Tiene & Ingram, 2001, p. 343). Fair Use also states that a cumulative effect is considered in this policy and if I use this material over and over, it would more likely be considered to be copyright infringement than if the material was only used a few times. Therefore, since I have seen the success of using my materials, I have time to seek to gain the proper permissions in order to use these materials again next year. Even though I do not believe that I violated any copyright guidelines, it seems as though many copyrights are violated daily throughout the United States. With the temptations to use copyrighted material sometimes difficult to resist and the costs in actual money or time associated with purchase or permission, many teachers do opt for breaking the copyright regulations. This must happen daily (perhaps hourly?) in classrooms across the United States (Tiene & Ingram, 2001, p. 349). Many times this happens throughout the country due to the ignorance of teachers from knowing the specific rules, not having the time to research the guidelines, or confusion due to the various legal interpretations. The answer to many subjective questions, about Fair Use and copyright infringements would depend upon how the copyright laws have been interpreted by the legal system. This is one reason why it is sometimes hard for educators to know for certain when they are infringing upon copyright laws. Teachers are too busy to research the legal nuances of copyright law (Tiene & Ingram, 2001, p. 347). Furthermore, the lack of enforcement of these guidelines causes many teachers to use materials at

times in a way that violates copyrights. Large publishing corporations do not know and cannot control what is happening in thousands of classrooms across the country. Philosophically, probably few teachers want to break any laws. But the dynamics of this situation tend to favor helping the students they know well and are responsible for, rather than honoring the rights of strangers, who are unlikely to show up to demand compensation (Tiene & Ingram, 2001, p. 351). Based on the reasons presented, I did not violate any Fair Use policy even though there are some subjective areas. My aim for using these materials was to engage my students in their learning and to give them a better background for their heritage. My lessons were successful as the students were interested and asked good questions at the conclusion of the unit. Since I need to gain copyright clearance if I am to use these materials year after year, I will work throughout the coming year to make sure I am free of any copyright infringements in the future.

Works Cited
Tiene, D., & Ingram, A. (2001). Exploring Current Issues in Educational Technology. Dubuque, IA: McGraw-Hill.