So I logged on today with the express intent of getting my week one blog post done….and maybe starting on my week two one, too. Wow – that’s a lot to live up to. After trying a few links and feeling kind of blah about it all I found the TED talk by Larry Lessig entitled “Laws that choke creativity” and not only related to quite a few points that he made in his speech but had some of my beliefs surrounding use of copyrighted material were supported in his views. Funny that I read now in the intro that Mr. Lessig was the founder of Creative Commons. This guy knows what he’s talking about when it comes to copyright issues and what is usable and what needs permission to copy. And yet, he’s purporting that current laws around copyrighting are making criminals of us all – not because we are horrible people, but because we are all viewing, using and sharing materials that, truly, we don’t have rights to. Kids these days (wow, I’m not old enough to say that!) are sharing content, remixing multi-media and creating their own works and projects by using other people’s material. Hey – I’ll even admit to it. As a grade six teacher I make a slide show every year to send my kids off to middle school and –eek – I use music to accompany it. No, I don’t copy the music and redistribute it to my class and, yes, I do purchase the songs on iTunes for use in the slide show and so could argue that I’ve sort of paid for the right to use them – but they are being used for the enjoyment of others or in a performance for others or however that piece of legalese goes.
So does that make me a law breaker? Yes, under the eyes of the law I have crossed the line. Am I doing it maliciously and trying to benefit from the works of others? Absolutely not. I’m simply trying to make a long slideshow more bearable for the viewers by playing some catchy tunes or to elicit some emotion and a sense of the end of an era, moving on and closure and new beginnings. Is that horribly wrong or just a mere stretching of copyright laws? Should I even try to justify it here - do I have a leg to stand on?
Mr. Lessig seems to think that these sorts of amateur uses of copyrighted materials are not really the intent of the laws or policies restricting their use. In providing examples of similar advances in technology over the years and the opposition to and support for their free use, he implies that common sense simply hasn’t caught up to the regulation and use of copyrighted digital media. In the case of kids sharing content, remixing or dubbing various media’s together, he calls that creativity, not criminal activity (there is a fine line there). Though this use of digital technologies is illegal unless express permission has been granted, he feels this is unfair as the people aren’t using it to make money, just to enhance their work or compilations with the work of others.
I really tuned in when he talked about ‘legaliz(ing) being young’ again. Who among us will claim to never have made a mixed tape? Compiled a cd for friends? Shared a program downloaded from the internet? It’s the culture of youth to collect and share – to give shouts out about a product or song or show – and all this was happening way before trending was even trendy. Lessig wants us to ‘embrace the opportunity of free content’ and work against both extremes in the debate – absolute control to ‘takedown’ anything that has copyrighted material as a part of it and the other side – copyright abolitionism and a complete refusal to recognize the laws that are in place. Lessig states in his TED talk that by enforcing (or trying to enforce) these excessive copyright laws we are raising our children to be pirates, criminalizing their creativity and pushing it underground, forcing them to ‘live life against the law.’ True to form, if we force the issue, we all become criminals and then where do we find the balance?
So how does this all relate to education today and open resources. Well, I’m going to talk about two kinds of teachers (don’t worry, there are lots of ways to sort and classify teachers and this is only one small piece of the puzzle). There are those teachers that believe in the good of all and the education of all and therefore are quite happy to share their work and ideas with others, and there are teachers who are very protective of their ‘content’ and won’t share anything with others as they want to keep it all to themselves (or maybe will share it if you promise to move very far away and only use it on years ending with an odd number so as not to perchance have students appear in their class that have used the materials before). Do you see some resemblance to those corporations enforcing copyright law? Those teachers who share have always felt that the more that we can share a good thing, the better it will be for all. This is very altruistic of them and of course allows for things like OERs to have become a reality. I personally have many collections of units, lessons and ideas that I have copied from others stored away in my file cabinet that allow me to provide a thorough and well-rounded education on a variety of topics to my students (more so than I could creating it all on my own). Though I don’t credit the teacher I got the resource from (and likely they didn’t create it but would need to credit someone else, anyways), I do continue to share units or lessons that have worked for me with others. Why? Because that is a part of who we are as teachers. Beg, borrow and steal until you have a good foundation to build on, and then beg, borrow and steal some more to continue to evolve your practice and provide the best and most engaging learning opportunities for your students. To my understanding, that’s what it’s always been about. So how is it different now? It’s not really different at all….it’s just that the content has moved online and the artists who are trying to be heard (or creative teachers who are trying to share) are using Pinterest and Facebook instead of photocopying their ideas and distributing them. It comes back to what Lessig talks about – this legalizing being young again. We’ve all done it and will continue to do it. That doesn’t make it right (or legal) but that doesn’t make us wrong either. A fine balance is what we need – people who are willing to share materials for the benefit of all (including themselves) and companies who aren’t jumping on every single person for downloading a song, movie, tv show or *gasp* lesson plan for personal use. This is not to say that I support the downloading of massive amounts of content and claiming ownership or rights to its use…..but a little relaxation of the laws that prohibit me from making a moving powerpoint presentation….yeah, I could go for that.