Permissions

toc =Intellectual Property= In the world of education, we need to model to our students that we have great respect for intellectual property. We should highly cherish creativity and invention. Part of that respect is to acknowledge who the designer/ creator/ inventor/ artist/ author/ singer/ researcher is that created a new idea or product and to respect their wishes as to the distribution of his/her work.

Someone who has created something unique should be able to benefit from their creation. No one else should be able to infringe on that right. The artist/inventor can choose to share those benefits, but it is ultimately up to the creator to decide.

In the United States there are laws in place to protect some intellectual property ([|copyright laws for artistic or literary work, patents for inventions, trademarks,]etc.). According to the Center for Social Media, "The goal of copyright law and policy is to foster the progress of science, the creation of culture, and the dissemination of ideas. Its best-known feature is protection of owners’ rights. But copying, quoting, and generally re-using existing cultural and scientific material can be a critically important part of generating new research and culture and promoting intellectual exchange." (http://centerforsocialmedia.org/libraries) This exception of "copying, quoting and generally re-using existing material" creates some seriously muddy waters, especially in the world of digital production. Copyright does have certain limitations including the doctrine of "[|fair use]." The U. S. Copyright Office tells us that "The doctrine of fair use has developed through a substantial number of court decisions over the years and has been codified in section 107 of the copyright law." (from http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html). Because the interpretation of fair use is rather ambiguous, a large group of people directly involved in copyright issues (schools, publishers, lawyers, ...) met over a long period of time and created a set of guidelines (known as [|The Fair Use Guidelines]) which have been supported by both the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts and the U.S. Copyright Office. However, they are only guidelines and not law.

In this class, anytime you want to use a photo, video, graphic, audio clip, music, or any other digital creation (whether made by you or someone else) you must have permission to do so and you must state that permission. Additionally, you must tell the source from which you got it and tell who holds the copyright on the original. If you have more than one credit to give, you must make it apparent which credit goes with which digital product. These steps are required to just display an object on a Web page or wiki or in a slide presentation or movie that you are creating. Using digital media in a creation of your own (using music in the background of an audio recording, putting a film clip or youtube video clip in a movie, etc.) has a different set of guidelines.

=Resources= There are Web sites and Web resources that either have copyright status clearly indicated or that only have copyright-free materials available. Sometimes it's easier to select your graphics, videos, music, etc. from one of these sites where you don't have to track down the copyright owner to get permission.

Images

 * US Government photos and images: http://www.usa.gov/Topics/Graphics.shtml
 * Library of Congress Prints and Photographs collection: http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/catalog.html
 * Wikimedia Commons (think Wikipedia meets Creative Commons)--"a database of [nearly 5 million] freely usable media files to which anyone can contribute." http://commons.wikimedia.org/
 * "Free [|(do whatever you want)] high-resolution photos." Unsplash https://unsplash.com/ (Thank you Geoff Cyr former practicum student and Miranda S., Fall 2016, Block 2)
 * Take your own photos, design your own art!

Music

 * Freeplay Music has music available for your use as long as you don't try to make money using it or try to pass it off as your own. Read the terms of agreement (link on left side of page) to see how they want you to give credit. http://freeplaymusic.com/licensing/termsofuse.php
 * All music at Jamendo is clearly marked with a Creative Commons license: http://www.jamendo.com/en/
 * Sound effects and background clips in GarageBand are free to use
 * According to their website, "The Free Music Archive is an interactive library of high-quality, legal audio downloads directed by WFMU, the most renowned freeform radio station in America." http://freemusicarchive.org/
 * Create your own music!

More Resources

 * Teacher Tap--a listing of sources for public domain, copyright free, open source, and student use images and media. Student use means even if the image is copyrighted, the creator gives permission for students to use and cite the projects in their assignments: http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic98.htm
 * A blog with entries describing various sources of things in the public domain: http://www.publicdomaincontent.com/
 * FREE -- Federal Resource for Educational Excellence (FREE)--a collection of images, music, video, and primary documents available for use in educational settings http://free.ed.gov/