Because they are afraid of violating copyright, “teachers use less effective teaching techniques, teach and transmit erroneous copyright information, fail to share innovative instructional approaches, and do not take advantage of new digital platforms.”

I would say this goes double, triple for schools. Only Freedom of Speech and Free Access to Information seem to be given up quicker than Fair Use in schools these days, if the listservs and newspapers are any indication of the real situation.

Here’s a new phrase for me: hyper-comply

Hyper-comply…some people… over-comply with copyright law, and even forego using legitimate teaching tools and techniques for fear of violating copyright.

“Academic libraries, which in earlier days provided a service, have outsourced themselves as bouncers to publishers like Reed-Elsevier; their principal job, in the digital realm, is to prevent interested readers from gaining access to scholarly material.”

I guess the principal job of the school librarian is to prevent interested party-goers from dancing to recorded music. (See this month’s School Library Journal copyright column. I’d link to it but their site is down!)

(update: here’s the link to the SLJ copyright column. Always a mind-blowing read.)

Publicdomain4u.com has about a hundred old folk and blues standards (Robert Johnson, Uncle Dave Macon, etc) available for free download.

and

Morguefile.com a searchable index of very good copyright-free images.

I can not make any guarantees as to the suitability of content for students on these sites (blues lyrics can be pretty racy!) but I did some of my typical smut-magnet test image searches and was relieved to find good, G-rated material. (Try hot girls and you actually get photos of kids at the beach, appropriately dressed. Always a good sign with search engines.)

I believe it’s my job to educate my students on fair use, plagiarism, copyright and the like. I do not believe it’s my job to ensure that the labels and studios are able to squeeze any possible penny out of any school or student that they can, or help them locate and prosecute young downloaders.

I must have been out of the room when they slipped that into my job description.

However, I do take this topic seriously and spend a good deal of time on it with my students. They learn the law and we have fruitful and provocative discussions concerning abuse of power, greed and the sometimes downright silliness that current copyright law encourages.

Here are two great new resources that cropped up this week on Boing Boing.

A site & curriculum:

Teaching copyright: Richard Esguerra registered the domain TeachingCopyright.org as a site for collecting curriculum materials for K-12 teachers who are being asked to explain copyright to their kids. Today, teachers are overwhelmed by slick, self-interested “curriculum” generated by the MPAA and their ilk, which presents a one-sided, inaccurate view of copyright. Richard produced some curriculum himself, and another student, Julianne Gale, supplemented his work with a brilliant lesson plan (pdf) for kids in grades 6-8.

And an out of this world video on Fair Use (yours to download. get it now, before Disney forces them to take it down.) Fair(y) Use Tale, using tiny cuts from many different Disney films mashed together to explain fair use.

Coral Cache link to MP4 download

Link to Stanford page for the film

Educators are constantly penalized and frustrated by restrictive copyright. Isn’t it our duty to protect Fair Use and encourage legislation that expands it? Why are we spending so much effort complaining about teachers who show films in class? Why don’t we focus more on how we can protect the rights of our teachers and students, rather than those of the corporations?