Queen of Copyright!!

Sorry folks, I found this post in my draft folder- I thought I posted it this weekend!

 

I am sure that when I utter the word "copyright" at my school, eyes roll. I have been saying that word for a long time and I'm not sure that anyone listens. Teachers have long been known as the Copyright Police's Most Wanted. We are terrible with copyright and from my experience have very little respect for it and yet we demand that our students cite their sources and give credit to authors/creators in their assignments. Sometimes I think it is the height of hypocrisy.

I understand that there are many good reasons for breaking copyright laws (money, availability, etc.) and I am as guilty as the next. Yes, I am confessing that even the Enforcer breaks the laws and I do it a lot. I find information that I think would be beneficial to my students and I grab it. But, and this is a big but, I am aware that I am doing it and I take responsibility for it. As the teacher librarian, the role of copyright expert has fallen to me and I was told when I started that I was to take it very seriously. In fact, I was informed by my principal that if there were any violations (he was speaking about movies in this case) and if we were caught I would be taking the fall and probably fired. Now, this is a bit shocking to a 24 year-old, who just started as a t-l and had only been teaching for 2 years before that, but I've taken it to heart. So, from then on, I've tried to take the issue of copyright and plagiarism very seriously.

There are mythical and terrifying people known throughout the education world as "The Copyright Police". They swoop down look through your things, write fines and slap your hands. When I was in a small community, during my second year of teaching, some of the higher-ups caught wind of a rumour that said there were squads of the Copyright Police moving through the province. I am being totally honest when I say; I have never seen such a panic amongst teachers and a school. Teachers were boxing up materials and moving them to their private garages at home. Some were wondering if they bought a lock, could they force you to open a drawer or cabinet. It was total panic! I was new to the profession and as with all small schools, I was the new kid and so I taught nothing that I taught the year before and I had not amassed anything of consequence. Now I am older and I find that I use that story and the stories of other unfortunate schools as a cautionary tale for my staff.

Even though I am the voice of caution in my school, I realized in this block that I don't really know a lot about copyright. For instance, I thought that you could use anything on the internet as long as you gave credit to the owner. I was wrong, some cases you need to ask permission. I also did not understand how Wikipedia worked- although I'm a huge fan. I admit that reading some of the information was a bit dry and I think that the entire issue of copyright is extremely boring, but a necessary mission. I really liked the iSearch concept and I actually plan on using it the next time I teach Science 10 and I also may have another teacher interested in using it in their class this semester. It is a vast subject and I'm sure that you could take a whole class just on copyright- I have bookmarked several links in this week's content so that I can re-read or refer back to them later when I'm unsure about something.

So, all of you teachers who are reading this please, the next time someone (like your friendly neighbourhood librarian) tells you that dubbing movies or copying DVDs is illegal, don't roll your eyes. Thank them for their diligence and understand that someone has to be a stickler; it is for your own good!

 

Katie