In Part II, I loved the Fair Use Fairy Tale! I found it to be a very creative way of explaining a complicated subject. It appeared as though the creator of this video was angry, and it always amazes me that such brilliant works can come from such emotions. As an educator, I sometimes wish that all uses of copyrighted materials in the classroom would be considered Fair Use, but I also try to see the reality of economy and the ability of creativity to yield enough money to support a comfortable life. Also, in Part II, the story of Shepard Fairey and the Obama Hope Poster was just crazy. I had seen this poster so many times, but I never knew the story behind it and the copyright battles that stemmed from this political piece.
Part III was the most enlightening! Creative Commons is the place to go to see the beginnings of the future of creative licensing in our ever-changing world. The different license types that are available seem to be so simple, that it is a wonder that they have not caught fire in the educational world faster. This is such a perfect resource that all teachers should be aware of and teaching to their students. In his TED Talk, Larry Lessig made some very clear points, but the one that I really enjoyed hearing out loud was his closing message about how kids are different today because of technology, and that society has created a culture of corruption because everyday people are living against the law. Our country and many other democracies around the world are in desperate needs of makeovers, and I believe that the time for this to happen is not far around the corner.
Picture created by Meredith Atwater, obtained from Creative Commons
Jon - here's my thoughts....
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDW-E4a-uTA
Jon, you have made some excellent points in your post. Like you, I most definitely believe that the Creative Commons Licensing should be explained in the classroom. Copyrighting in general is so confusing that any idea that helps to simplify it should be made available to everyone. Further, since most of us utilize technology and internet media in one fashion or another it only makes sense to simplify the complicated. I also agree with you about how fascinating the Good Copy/Bad Copy Documentary was. I thought it was very interesting how other countries and cultures view copyright laws. As you said, it makes it very clear that as long as others are inspired by the works of others and copyrighting is so confusing pirating will always take place.
ReplyDeleteJon- I also enjoyed the bold use of Disney Animation by the Fair Use Fairy Tale filmmakers. Disney is one of the most strident enforcers of copyright law for it's products. I agree that creative commons is a good source for those that wish to share and have often used images I found there. I know that many artists would also like to share, as Lessig suggestion as a solution. My only concern is that corporations hold the rights to artists works and they are not as likely to be so generous. Corporations weld a significant amount of power. I am interested to see how things are resolved.
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ReplyDeleteI, too, enjoyed the Fair Use Fairy Tale. I feel as though it helped to painted the issue of Fair Use in a much clearer light.
I thought the video was created in such a clever way. It was definitely an interesting way to put Fair Use into perspective. I agree with what you said about allowing educators to utilize copyrighted materials. I know there are several times that I wished I could use something that I know would benefit my students. I suppose an argument could be that if we allowed our students to use copyrighted materials, they would continue this use in their daily life. And as you stated, creators do have the right to be compensated for their material. I believe that it's when people become too greedy that society tends to loose respect for the creators.
Good summary of the issues... totally agree with your last comments: how can we be a people who want to respect laws that are meant for our common good when the laws are completely out of step with common practice and automatically make a large portion of us into criminals. Not good.
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