Watch the video below, then consider the questions that follow it. Share your response as a class.
What are Henry’s rights as a creator?
What are Henry’s responsibilities in using other people’s creative work?
Henry says that pirating material is stealing, no matter how it’s done. What are examples of pirating? Why should you avoid it?
Henry likes to make mash-ups and remixes and put them online. What does he need to do to make this “fair use”?
Consider the video below. What would the creators of the following video say about Henry's creativity?
Use Common Sense! To be a responsible creator, follow these steps:
ASK: How does the author or artist say I can use the work? Do I have to get the creator’s permission first?
ACKNOWLEDGE: Did I give credit to the work I used?
ADD VALUE: Did I rework the material to make and add something original?
Consider the Case Studies below and the questions that follow. As a class, briefly discuss the questions that follow.
Case #1
When he was at the park, Emilio took an amazing photo of a squirrel hanging with one paw from a tree branch. He uploaded this photo to his Flickr photo-sharing website. He also entered it in the school’s photography contest, and it won first prize! Soon people at school visited his Flickr site to download his funny photo. His friends posted the photo on their profiles, blogs, and webpages. Some people at school printed out the photo and posted it in their lockers. Someone in art class used the photo in a collage. Someone else from another school made T-shirts with the photo and sold them.
If you were Emilio, how would you feel?
Do people using Emilio’s photo have a responsibility to ask permission before they use his work? Should they give him credit for his work?
Is there a difference between a person selling Emilio’s photo and a person using the photo just because he or she likes it? Is it different when the people using the photo are Emilio’s friends?
If Emilio was concerned about the copyright of his photo, what could he do?
Case #2
Marissa loves to make videos with her friends and upload them to YouTube. She made a video in which she and her friends dressed up and lip-synced to the latest hit song. In the video, they sang the whole song. A few days later, Marissa saw that the music on the YouTube video had been muted. There was a message saying, “This video contains content from Sony Music Entertainment, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds.” People could still see the video image but not hear sound. Marissa also saw that some mean comments about her video had been posted, such as “Where is the song? Stupid!!!” and “Smart move.”
If you were Marissa, how would you feel?
Why do you think YouTube muted the audio but didn’t block the video?
If you received mean comments about something you uploaded online as Marissa did, how would you feel?
How could Marissa rework her video to claim fair use?
Case #3
Cici has a big report due for social studies class about the history of the Olympics. But she put it off until the last minute. So she goes online and researches the topic. She copies and pastes information from several different websites into her paper. She then changes a few of the words to make it seem like she wrote it. She doesn’t give credit to the websites she used.
Is Cici’s behavior plagiarism? Why or why not?
Why might Cici’s teachers care about what she did?
Would it make any difference if Cici copied and pasted things from the Internet, or if she lifted it from a book?
Review these Rules that Users are Responsible for Upholding.
Become a better Google Searcher of resources, videos, and images!
Try it!
Can you find these images through a Google Search? What method did you use to find them? What is the subject in each image?
Can you figure out if any one of these pictures is labeled for reuse? Can any of the pictures be modified and reused? Can they be reused in material that is sold for profit (commercial reuse)?
BIG Questions: Under US Copyright and Fair Use Law, when does a creator become obligated to seek expressed verbal or written permission to use another person's creative work?
Does the use of a Citation prevent Copyright Infringement? Is Copyright Infringement the same as Plagiarism?
Credits:
Created with images by woodleywonderworks - "Duplicate Original" • Travis Modisette - "Lazy Squirrel" • BEP - "singer karaoke girl" • moritz320 - "hourglass egg timer time"