Thing #9

I was interested in the information about copyright laws and the practice of fair use for educators. I did not know about fair use before taking this course. I know now that I can use copyrighted materials without permission or payment to the author/originator if the social and cultural benefits are predominant. The example used in the class of the artist who mocked up a newspaper image of B. Obama which became a huge sensation around the country made this a bit clear to me.

I also thought that the develpment of creative commons was interesting and also very useful. I like that it eliminates getting permission from the originator or making payments to them in some cases is no longer needed if the originator agrees to release dome of those rights.

I was also interested to see the many websites, such as Flickr, that offer free pictures for use, with the attributions, w/out violating any copyright laws.

I do think this is important to discuss in MILI. I have felt that I have violated the copyright laws when using materials in class in the past, but after reviewing the code of best practices I feel much better. I don't believe I was in violation of the code (at least most of the time.)

I guess the experiences relate to the use of videos/DVD's (a few were taped at home and not purchased -- which is probably not ok) and, more often, using newspaper/magazine articles for use in the classroom. I think that I have used attributions for these materials in most cases. I will be more diligent in the future about doing this.