COPYRIGHT

IN SCHOOLS: COPYRIGHT LAW CREATES DIFFICULTIES FOR YOUNG 1

STUDENTS IN THE MODERN CLASSROOM

Copyright Law Creates Difficulties for Young Students in the Modern Classroom

Chris A. Quarrie

University of British Columbia

Masters in Educational Technology

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Copyright Law and Young Students

Young students at the Grade 8-10 level in the todays classrooms spend so much time trying to

adhere to copyright guidelines when completing projects, that they are often left confused and

frustrated. Laws regarding the use of copyright materials have changed to meet some of the

needs of schools and classrooms, but further lifting of restrictions would provide benefits to

students and teachers, and have little to no impact on the creators of cultural artefacts. Students

creativity can be stifled, and much of the time spent citing sources by following the fine points of

different complicated regulations is time wasted. Projects and assignments created in this context

suffer as a result. This is especially true in the case I will present, where young students are

under time constraints and their knowledge of technology, culture, and the law may be limited.

The point these students are trying to convey with their work is often lost when they are limited

as to which multimedia artefacts they are allowed to show in class, and even the most careful of

students may find themselves in a legal grey area, through no fault of their own.

This paper will concentrate specifically on presentations that students at the Grade 8 level give in

my science classes. They are instructed to research, and then present a topic on Water Systems

to the class, using multimedia including text, imagery and videos obtained mainly from the

Internet. They are told to follow the laws and guidelines given to them according to current

copyright law, particularly Fair Use guidelines, which I will summarize. The problem, from a

student perspective, is that this law is confusing, contradictory, and flies in the face of common

sense. Why is it that projecting a particular protected video on screen to the class is illegal, but

simply picking up a phone and finding the video on YouTube in seconds is not? I wish to address

these and other concerns, and propose an alternative set of rules and laws for students who wish

to present multimedia artefacts to supplement their presentations in the classroom one which
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allows students maximum freedom and access, one which is free of confusing and complicated

guidelines, and one that still has little or no financial impact on the owners and creators of these

artefacts.

Following the Current Law and Copyright Confusion

Students should be made aware that there are laws that dictate the use of materials to avoid

breaking copyright law. This section summarizes what the current laws say regarding the use of

copyrighted materials as it applies to this case: students in British Columbia.

The Council of Ministers of Education Canada (CMEC) published a document in Sept 2013 that

outlines Fair Dealing Guidelines. The paper dictates that, Teachers, instructors, professors, and

staff members in non-profit educational institutions may communicate and reproduce, in paper or

electronic form, short excerpts from a copyright-protected work for the purposes of research,

private study, criticism, review, news reporting, education, satire, and parody. Short excerpts

are here defined as, a) up to 10 per cent of a copyright-protected work (including a literary

work, musical score, sound recording, and an audio-visual work) Many ambiguities and

multiple interpretations arise, for example: Do students count as teachers in the instance of my

case study since they are presenting materials, like a teacher, to class? Do private schools such as

the one I teach in count as schools for-profit, and therefore dont fall under this law? What is a

short excerpt of a photograph? What is a short excerpt of a 3-minute YouTube clip? The

CMEC also that, Teachers can show audio-visual works purchased or rented from a retail store,

a copy borrowed from the library, a copy borrowed from a friend, and a YouTube video

(Copyright Matters!, 2012). Here is a contradiction YouTube videos often contain 100% of a

copyright work (entire movies). But you are only permitted to view 10%! Here is one of many

contradictions. Teachers and students are permitted to use an entire artistic work (including a
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painting, print, photograph, diagram, drawing, map, chart, and plan) from a copyright-protected

work containing other artistic works (Copyright Matters!, 2012). How are students to know

when an item is discovered online, whether or not a work is a work containing other works?

Google searches for multimedia items are often self-contained, so its hard to know how much

of the original work you are actually looking at. Students commonly use Googles Image

Search to find pictures for their projects, and while it is possible to filter out image results that

are not permitted for use, whats left after filtering often doesnt work well with the concept they

are attempting to convey. The guide goes on to mention that all works must be cited, which does

not present a problem. But many times it is hard to know which website should be referenced, as

it is often being displayed on a website as a copy of the original in the first place, so students end

up referencing a reference. An obvious example is the use of Wikipedia: students reference the

Wikipedia page that information is pulled from, rather than the original source that Wikipedia is

referencing (the veracity of Wikipedia information is a whole different topic!).

The Fair Use Guidelines prescribe that these short excerpts may be, provided or

communicated to each student enrolled in a class or course: a) as a class handout; b) as a posting

to a learning- or course management system that is password-protected or otherwise restricted to

students of a school or postsecondary educational institution; c) as part of a course pack

(Copyright Matters!, 2012). This can be confusing from a student perspective; they are not

building a course, they are merely presenting a topic to the class. Where do slideshows like

PowerPoint fall in this rule? They are not handouts. Also, many students in my class use online

presentation websites like Prezi, or Pixton to create their own YouTube videos, which are not

password-protected. While it may be possible to protect these sites so that they are only viewable

within an institution, Grade 8 students may not have the technical know-how for adjusting these
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settings. If they are not private, are they breaking copyright law by posting their non-password

protected presentations online? It is not entirely clear one way or the other, as it may depend on

the materials within these presentations. Additionally, the guidelines from Fair Dealing indicate

that, Copying or communicating multiple short excerpts from the same copyright-protected

work, with the intention of copying or communicating substantially the entire work, is

prohibited (Copyright Matters!, 2012, my italics). Students attempting to complete this project

are often using multiple short excerpts from one source usually the Science 8 textbook to

convey their message. Is this prohibited or not? They may even do this unintentionally, when

they lift several images from what they believe to be multiple sources, since they are found on

separate websites, but may in fact be multiple short excerpts from a single work. It should be

clear that though the laws have been modified to allow for greater freedom in educational

institutions, confusing, contradictory and often misleading information remains, particularly for

young students.

Fair is Fair?

In Fair Use of Images in the Classroom: How Far is Fair? Christine L. Sundt contended:

In the classroom, one would assume that since education is such a noble enterprise,

whatever we do in the name of promoting the progress of science and the useful arts

should be acceptable under the law and permitted without boundaries Unfortunately

thats wishful thinking. Laws are complex.... What may look like copyright issues on the

surface often turn out to be laced with license and contract law as well as property and

even personality rights. Therefore asking what is fair under copyright is unfortunately

only a small part of the larger question Suppose you want to post your lecture on the

web so your students can review it to prepare for their exam. Of course, you will want to
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include the images you scanned from your departments slide collection or from books in

the library. Some of the other images are your own -- shot on site while doing research --

while other came from the web from websites whose owners you dont know but who

have made access simple and seemingly unrestricted (you can still right-click and

download!). Some of these images must surely be long past copyright restrictions, if

copyright even applies. That image of Mona Lisa cant still be under Leonardos

copyright but can the Louvre claim rights or does the right belong to Jean-Paul

somebody who took the picture and posted it on the web? (Fair Use of Images in the

Classroom: How Far is Fair?, 2004).

My students frequently download and use photos for their presentations obtained through Google

Image Search. While this may be legal for password-protected websites only available within the

school, it is not entirely clear whether they are permitted to display these photos (with or without

citations), on publically available presentation websites like Prezi. Whom does the original photo

belong to? Sundt argued, If you are unable to articulate why your use should or could be fair,

then you cant expect the rights owner to help you. Rights holders, like contracting providers,

will seek the most benefit and give away as little as possible (Fair Use of Images in the

Classroom: How Far is Fair?, 2004). Can we really expect a 13-year-old girl to make these

articulations? Students use YouTube clips to compliment their presentations with music, but

when they download this YouTube video into an mp3, are they breaking the law? Molly

McHugh warned that, MP3 ripping lives in a legal grey area, where technically its legal

although the powers that be are trying to change that (Major YouTube ripper loses court case

for archiving MP3s, but wont be closing shop, 2014). Could a young student be held liable for

copyright infringement for simply presenting a topic to class that contains a YouTube clip, or a
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copyrighted photograph? Its not clear one way or another. Does it matter where the owner

resides? Feng and Petrina (2014) warned us that, There are copyright agreements that are

binding among many countries. Nonetheless, works copyrighted in Canada have no guarantee of

protection in other countries, and vice versa. Cyberlibertarians remind us that that borders and

jurisdictions are thrown into question in cyberspace. Nevertheless, for Canadian works in

Canada, you must abide by the Canadian Copyright Act.

Lawrence Lessig made a strong case that current copyright law is outdated and needs to be

replaced by a new model. He has called for a complete paradigm shift. When students conduct

research, they are presented with, a vast amount of creative work spread across the Internet. But

as the law is currently crafted, this work is presumptively illegal (Lessig, 2004, p. 184). Even

though we are concerned with a group of students in a science classroom, it could be argued that

the control of content online and the administration of copyright law on such a small scale can be

seen an instrument of silencing dissent and abusing power. Copyright is the best international

instrument for shutting people up when they threaten the status quo (Barlow, 1998). This is

particularly hypocritical, given that:

There is already a huge disjuncture between what is legal and what is socially acceptable

in this area. When I speak to audiences about copyright, I always ask how many present

can claim to have no unauthorized software on their hard disks. Even when I'm asking

this question of publishers, record executives, or copyright lawyers, I never see more than

10 percent of the hands go up (and I suspect that some significant number of these are

lying) (Barlow, 1998).

How can copyright laws be justified in a classroom full of 13-year-olds when the stakeholders

who have an interest in protecting their work are not even following the law? Even so, there
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are many moves presently underway by the world's information mongers -- the publishers, the

licensors, and the distributors -- to seriously criminalize the reproduction of all copyrighted

material (Barlow, 1998).

These rules and laws make it very difficult for teachers to to drum up enthusiasm and interest in

the subject matter, and make the project a positive learning experience. Students see the exercise

as a mindless, tedious task that they have to do and it provides no learning benefit or relevance

in relation to the Water Systems project. Students are only interested in producing an engaging

multimedia presentation that will wow their classmates. This often means using presentations

that are accompanied by multimedia: images, music and video. Should a presentation be dulled

down and be made to adhere stringently to copyright law? Students end up spending more time

being sure to follow the rules than producing great work.

Harsh Penalties

Capturing and sharing has always been integral to our cultureYet this is possible only

if the activity is presumptively legal. There is a vast amount of creative work spread across the

Internet. But as the law is currently crafted, this work is presumptively illegal. (Lessig, 2004, p

184-185). The work of my Grade 8 science students could be included in this description.

Penalties for breaking copyright laws have been high and harsh, and students should be made to

understand these consequences. These penalties could also reflect poorly on the school, the

administration, and the teaching staff. Could my job as a teacher be at risk if a students work is

displayed illegally online? What is to be done?

Proposed Solutions

John Perry Barlow argued, as a creator of content himself, at an e-G8 meeting in 2011:
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I may be one of very few people in this room who actually makes his living personally by

creating what these gentlemen are pleased to call intellectual property. I dont regard

my expression as a form of property. Property is something that can be taken from me. If

I dont have it, somebody else does. Expression is not like that. The notion that

expression is like that is entirely a consequence of taking a system of expression and

transporting it around, which was necessary before there was the Internet, which has the

capacity to do this infinitely at almost no cost (Masnick, 2011).

If this view is shared by those who would publish their works for education of young people,

what is the point in punishing them when they choose to assist in its dissemination? Laws need

to be eased to allow for clear boundaries that are simple, fair, and provide maximum benefit to

students and owners alike. The Digital Consumer's Bill of Rights was crafted in response to

encroachments on rights to privacy, and rights to freely generate, use and share information. This

bill is the consumers' solution to the U.S.s Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and the

Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA), both of which are overly sympathetic to

corporate intellectual property (IP) rights (Feng and Petrina, 2014). This proposed set of rights

would make it much easier for students to use and share legally-acquired materials (such as

through Google or YouTube search the primary method for obtaining materials). Richard

Stallman of the GNU project proposes limiting the time in which a copyrighted work is

protected:

The natural first step in reducing this dimension of copyright power is to permit

occasional private small-quantity noncommercial copying and distribution among

individuals. This would eliminate the intrusion of the copyright police into people's

private lives, but would probably have little effect on the sales of published works The
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experience of Napster shows that we should also permit non-commercial verbatim

redistribution to the general publicwhen so many of the public want to copy and share,

and find it so useful, only draconian measures will stop them, and the public deserves to

get what it wants (2014).

I would go a step further and propose that any works published to the Internet and obtained for

educational purposes are instantly allowed for free use, copying, and distribution. Students in

Grade 8 are not seeking this media (I am mainly referring here to images and videos) for

monetary gain. They will still be using best practises when it comes to citing sources. They

simply want to collect information that is already available to everyone else, simply by doing a

cursory Google search, and put it together in the form of a rudimentary presentation for class.

Conclusion

It is clear that the legal impediments to employing any and all information that is available to

them harms student learning. Students are not causing any loss, monetary or otherwise, by

showing information in class, whether it is privately available within an institution, or published

publicly on a presentation website like Prezi. Therefore these proposals will go a long way in

helping young students become enlightened on topics of interest to both schools and students,

and clear the way for best pedagogical practice without the fear of legal reprisal.

Petrina and Feng (2014) concluded that, Digital theorists note that the preventive measures are

too little too late. We cannot contain digital data the way we were able to with analog data. Not

only have the rules of the game changed; the game itself has changed. If the law doesnt catch

up to the 21st Century classroom a revolution of sorts may be in order. Hopefully it will not come

to that.
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References

Barlow, J. P. (1998). Life, Liberty and The Pursuit of Copyright?. TheAtlantic.com. Retrieved

November 17, 2014, from http://www.theatlantic.com

Bill of Rights (n.d.). Retrieved October 10, 2014 from http://www.digitalconsumer.org/bill.html

Copyright Information for Teachers (2013, September). Retrieved November 10, 2014 from

http://www.cmec.ca/466/Programs-and-Initiatives/Copyright/Copyright-Information-for-

Teachers/index.html

Copyright Matters! (2012). Retrieved October 20, 2014 from

http://cmec.ca/Publications/Lists/Publications/Attachments/291/Copyright_Matters.pdf

Feng, F., & Petrina, S. (2014). Copyright Primer. Retrieved September 30, 2014 from

http://blogs.ubc.ca/educ500/files/2012/07/etec531copyrightprimer.pdf

Lessig, L. (2004). Free Culture. New York, NY: The Penguin Press.

Masnick, M. (2011) John Perry Barlow Tells Copyright Maximalists That They've Got The

Fundamentals Wrong. Techdirt.com. Retrieved November 17, 2014, from

http://www.digitaltrends.com

McHugh, M. (2014). Major YouTube ripper loses court case for archiving MP3s, but wont be

closing shop. Digital Trends.com. Retrieved November 10, 2014, from

http://www.digitaltrends.com

Stallman, R. Misinterpreting CopyrightA Series of Errors. Retrieved November 10, 2014, from

https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/misinterpreting-copyright.html

Sundt, C. (2004). Fair Use of Images in the Classroom: How Far is Fair? Retrieved November

10, 2014, from http://pages.uoregon.edu/csundt/howfar.htm