Copyright and Fair Use

Copyright laws are in place so the work of authors, musicians, artists and others are protected. This means that people cannot take their work and pass it off as their own. However, teachers are allowed to use copyrighted material with certain limitations-this falls under Fair Use. To use materials under Fair Use, certain guidelines must be met. A few of these guidelines are: material must be used for educational purposes, must be acquired legally, and only portions of the work must be used. However, this policy does not give authority to copy or distribute the work. It is important to cite the work correctly and give proper credit. This video gives a funny twist on who credit goes to:

Many teachers have began using Creative Commons. Creative Commons was established in 2001 and it is a non profit organization that makes it easier for people to distribute and share work with others. There are licenses that creators can choose from that tell how they are willing for their work to be used.
BY: Allow for distribution, tweak, addition as long as the original creation is being credited
SA:Allow for distribution, tweak, addition as long as the original creation is being credited and the new creation will also have the same license
ND: Allows for sharing and distribution as long as the creation remains unchanged
NC: Allows for distribution, tweak and addition as long as the creation is being used for noncommercial use

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