Response to Sunny Spraue's Week 1 Reading Blog EMDT:MAC - Copyrights

Week 1 Reading Blog EMDT:MAC - Copyrights

Being the producer of the educational access channel, administrator of our digital library and duplication center, I currently am the “Copyright Police Officer” at work. I do hate the task yet; I enjoy educating others on how to use it appropriately. I have heard the myths by almost everyone who doesn’t fully understand how easy it is to simply ask permissions. When we do ask permissions, we are normally granted. After many many classes, I still refer to our attorney prior to saying yes or no.

I despise when the tech staff decides to give their opinion as fact of the subject to our instructors or when they decide to duplicate a DVD that is owned by the library for a classroom. Then they respond, “She just didn’t want to duplicate it for you”. It drives me crazy. I would prefer to simply explain how to go about it properly.

Since the law has so many grey areas that can be interpreted differently, each area of the school or type of media has different Fair Use rules that are spelled out in our use policy. There are no grey areas. It is nicely posted at my front door. This is where I am thankful for our attorneys and our board members.

Unfortunately, the use policy does not yet cover Creative Commons. People cannot understand copyrights or Fair Use of copyrights; why not throw in Creative commons too. Fortunately each creator spells out creative commons and publisher so there is not question of what can and cannot be done.

However, the most interesting in this lesson for me as a broadcast producer of an educational access channel is the bulleted list the video provided for the Film maker’s statement for best practices in Fair Use.

Statute
1. Quoting for critique
2. Quoting pop culture to make a point

3. Capturing incidental material

4. Using historical material to make a point

Centerforsocialmedia.org/fairuse


I am taking this and the website to my public relations coordinator first thing in the morning. With these four practices in mind, we could change our scripts to include materials to reference our point. I am very excited. There are many events we cannot capture because of the copyright materials at the events. I love documentaries even more now.

Nikki's Response:

I can't imagine having to deal with this issue on a constant basis, of course, that would probably be the best remedy for my spinning head. :-) I agree that the bulleted list makes fair use far more comprehensible. It's simple and does not contain the confounding jargon that seems common for many other rules based in law.

Sometimes I wish the only law was the "Golden Rule." As far as I see it, if credit is given and the use is not intended to make a profit, take others' use of your material as flattery and free advertising... :-)