Thing+9

= Thing 9: Mystery of Creative Commons and Fair Use =

Introduction
So, you've got students who have created some incredible content and you want to publish it online for the world to appreciate (not to mention Mom, Dad, Grandpa, and Grandma), but "Little John" and "Little Sue" have used popular music that they ripped from a CD and images they found via a Google image search. There's that little voice in the back of your head asking you, "Can we publish these as they are?" = =

Well, if that voice ain't a talkin'....it should be! = =

Can your students create presentations for class using images found on Google with Rhianna's "Umbrella" playing in the background? Sure! But can you legally publish that same presentation on the web? After all, all of the content was used for a school project, right? Sadly, that answer is no. However, there are alternatives, which we will be exploring. = =

Creative Commons
[|Creative Commons]Fair use guidelines enable teachers and students to use copyrighted materials within the classroom for direct educational purposes. But fair use seems restrictive, [|can be confusing], and more-or-less stops at the schoolhouse gate. All of those wonderfully illustrative images found via Google search and pasted into that Oscar-worthy Powerpoint presentation cannot legally be shared back out on the Web, even with proper citation -- **citation does not equal permission**.


 * As educators, it is our responsibility to teach students about the ethics of content gathering and use, whether for a research paper or a digital storytelling project. **

(**Do not despair** -- we actually have broader fair use rights than many of us may realize -- we just have to understand some **important guidelines**. Legitimate fair use can be determined by criteria such as "transformativeness" and benefit to society -- see my "note about 'traditional' copyright" below for a phenomenal resource that can help educators de-mystify copyright).

One of the hallmarks of Web 2.0 is the creation and sharing of user-created content, and tools like Flickr, YouTube, Scribd, Thinkfree, Archive.org (and hundreds of others) make uploading, sharing and obtaining digitized content a snap. But with the free exchange of content comes the responsibility of determining how it is shared, how it may be used, and how to properly credit the author or creator.
 * Now, where was I? Oh, yes... **

Enter **Creative Commons**, the best thing to happen to Copyright since, well, ever...

"[|Creative Commons] provides free tools that let authors, scientists, artists, and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry. You can use CC to change your copyright terms from 'All Rights Reserved' to 'Some Rights Reserved.'"
 * "Share, Remix, Reuse — Legally" **

Creative Commons celebrated its fifth birthday in December 2007. Currently, there are **millions** of photos, books, songs, poems, artworks, videos and other media shared on the web under Creative Commons licenses, including this course! It is an example of how you can take a piece of information or a product (in this case, K12 Learning 20, which is based on the original Learning 2.0 course) and 'remix' it to make it fit your needs, giving attribution to the original author or in this case authors.

One of the most exciting developments in Web 2.0/Creative Commons culture is the **OER Commons** -- a site where users can find and contribute to the collection of thousands of [|Open Educational Resources]. The most highly-rated content in the OER Commons comes from the [|MIT Open Courseware (OCW)] project -- an online repository of free lecture notes, exams, and other resources (including, increasingly, audio and video) from more than **1800 courses** spanning MIT's entire curriculum. MIT recently announced a subsection of OCW called [|Highlights for High School].

Cool, huh?

**¤ NOTE ABOUT "TRADITIONAL" COPYRIGHT:** Creative Commons is an amazing evolution in copyright, but it does not magically erase the need for proper citation, and ethical use. Neither does it solve our confusion about "traditional" copyright, which still applies to most works or art and intellectual property. What to do, what to do? Well, I am glad you asked.

I am so excited to share an unbelievable resource I recently learned about: The Media Education Lab at Temple University has worked with a number of expert groups to develop a newly released **[|Code of Best Practices for Fair Use in Media Education]**, which "helps educators gain confidence about their rights to use copyrighted materials in developing students' critical thinking and communication skills." EVERY educator should read this guide, share it with colleagues and practice applying these guidelines thoughtfully with their students. These resources not only diminish copyright confusion, but provide educators and students with tools to help them fully exercise their fair use rights. The site provides case studies and teaching resources, too.


 * Creative Commons Sample Searches **

Results from the **[|Advanced Flickr Search]** (scroll down and make sure the "Creative Commons" box is checked before searching as pictured below):
 * Flickr **


 * [|Education] - over 65,000 freely usable images
 * [|Paris]- over 755, 000 images
 * [|Yellow Roses] - over 9,500 results
 * [|Hexagon] - over 2,600 results


 * ccMixter **
 * [|ccMixter]** is a community music sharing site featuring remixes licensed under Creative Commons. You can sample and remix them to create something new. This **[|link]** takes you to a tag cloud, and **[|this link]** will take you to a Sample page where you can also browse by keywords. Click on a style, instrument, singer type, etc and it will take you to a page of songs that were tagged with that keyword. You can listen to them directly on the site and download them for your use.

Jamendo is another Creative Commons licensed music site. You can **[|start here]** to find a listing of tags that will take you to albums tagged with that word. Here is a sample album embedded below. I clicked on the tag "drums", which took me to a page of albums to choose from. The content below may not be visible on the Barrow County Network.
 * Jamendo **

media type="custom" key="6457383" align="center"


 * Confused? **

So what exactly IS copyright and how does it pertain to educational uses? Check out this humorous video using a barrage of Disney characters who will introduce you to copyright and in what ways you can (or used to be able to) use copyright protected works. It's a longish video (10:13), but very amusing and highly creative considering all of the splicing that had to be done to create the video. Even if you don't watch it all, at least watch a few minutes so you can appreciate the work that went into it.

media type="custom" key="6457391" So, what to do, what to do? So glad you asked! Enter stage left...
 * A Fair(y) Use Tale!** (10:13)

** Fair Use **
"But we already discussed fair use", you're probably thinking. Ah, but what we haven't discussed are the ** NEW **(and yes, VERY improved) guidelines!! Introduced November 11, 2008, the Media Education Lab at Temple University has worked with a number of expert groups to develop a newly released **[|Code of Best Practices for Fair Use in Media Education]**, which "helps educators gain confidence about their rights to use copyrighted materials in developing students' critical thinking and communication skills." These resources not only diminish copyright confusion, but provide educators and students with tools to help them fully exercise their fair use rights.

So, what are these new "best practices"? Let's compare:


 * **New Guidelines** || **Old Guidelines** ||
 * According to the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy, teachers can:

1. make copies of newspaper articles, TV shows, and other copyrighted works and use them and keep them for educational use

2. create curriculum materials and scholarship with copyrighted materials embedded

3. share, sell and distribute curriculum materials with copyrighted materials embedded

Learners can:

4. use copyrighted works in creating new material

5. distribute their works digitally if they meet the transformativeness standard. ||< These guidelines apply to the total portion amount of material, in aggregate, from a single copyrighted work (in each alternative, it is the **lesser** of the two). Lawmakers still haven't determined how "fair use" would pertain to educational Web sites which allow a wider distribution. || How do I know if my use is a fair use? **
 * **Motion media:** 10% or 3 minutes
 * **Text:** 10% or 1000 words
 * **Music, Lyrics, Music Video:** 10% or 30 seconds
 * **Numerical Data Sets:** 10% or 2500 fields or cell entries
 * **Illustrations and Photographs:** 10% or 15 images in a collection; no more than 5 by a single artist or photographer.

Kristin Hokanson, Technology Integration Coach at the Upper Merion Area High School, King of Prussia, PA, has been a veritable captain in the sea of turbulent and yes, murky waters of copyright confusion. She, along with other far more knowledgeable than I, have created a wiki called Unlocking Copyright Confusion. This online resource is one of my "go to" sites for information regarding "fair use". Kristin, along with Renee Hobbs, professor at Temple's [|Media Education Lab], have even created a questionnaire tool that will help guide both educators and students in determining if their use of copyright protected media does indeed meet fair use guidelines.
 * Tool for Supporting Fair Use Reasoning Process

Discovery Exercise
Watch the two animations below to learn about the history and basic concepts behind Creative Commons.

media type="youtube" key="io3BrAQl3so" height="385" width="480" Big, pretty, non-youtube version here: []
 * Get Creative** (6:37)

media type="youtube" key="2BESbnMJg9M" height="385" width="480" non-youtube version here: []
 * Wanna Work Together?** (3:00)

**Task**

**Part I**

 * Fair Use Reasoning Tool**

If you've even been paying slight attention to the news, then the case of the Obama photo turned into poster art is probably old news to you. However, this is a perfect example (not to mention opportunity) to try out the Fair Use Reasoning Tool.

**¤ NOTE:** You do not need to do this activity with your class. It's just an activity for you to complete on your own so you can see how the tool works, and to understand **how to use it** with your students in the future. You do not NEED to fill in the questionnaire online if you don't want to. If you prefer, you can print off the PDF version (linked below) and write out your answers to the questions and then compare your results to those on the results paged, which is also linked below.

Whether you use the online tool or choose to use the PDF version of the tool, check out the [|results page] and read the conclusions others came to as well.
 * ¤ NOTE** ** : **You might find it useful to print off the PDF version ( [[image:http://www.barrow.wikispaces.net/i/mime/32/application/pdf.png width="32" height="32" link="http://23things.barrow.wikispaces.net/file/view/Tool%2Bfor%2Breasoning%2BFair%2BUse.pdf"]] [|Tool+for+reasoning+Fair+Use.pdf] ) of the tool while looking at the results page since it doesn't include the questions.

Part II
Write a blog post reflecting on the topics below. Be sure to include "**Thing 9**" in your post title.

How do you think Creative Commons may affect you professionally and/or personally? Some prompts:
 * Have you noticed the CC logo on any websites you visit? Did you wonder what it meant?
 * Do you think CC will impact the way students learn and create projects? How?
 * Do you use digital images, audio or video clips from the web in your teaching (or professional practice)?
 * Do you ever share content on the web?
 * Who owns the materials that you produce for teaching / professional development purposes?
 * What are some potential negatives for using CC?

Consider the "Best Practices for Fair Use in Media Education" and reflect upon them. Feel free to use any of the prompts below to guide your response.
 * What has been your experience with students using copyright protected media in the past?
 * Given what you know now, would this affect how you ask your students to gather media for projects?
 * How do you think these new guidelines will impact the way students create projects?
 * How might these new guidelines affect media that you use for professional purposes?

Stretch Task
Check out some Creative Commons resources from the [|OER Commons], the [|CC Content Directories], or try out the [|CC Search] tool and see what you find. Extend the blog post above to share about your findings. Include **a link** to any resource you mention