Day 1: I planned to do a really neat art project today with my class. What I wanted to do was make a symmetry quilt (we are doing geometry in class) and so pulled a number of pictures off of Google to show my kids all about quilts and how symmetrical they can be…..we were so engaged in finding lines of symmetry and discussing the blocking that I forgot about giving credit to the owners of the pictures…..I have failed my students! How could I be so crass and not attribute someone else’s work? Where did I go wrong? How did I become this sort of teacher? Ah well, tomorrow is a new day.
Day 2: In math today we were talking about algebra. Instead of being the drone at the front of the class, I thought “here’s a neat idea – let’s watch a Khan Academy video on the topic and discuss our understandings.” Can I do that? After yesterday’s ‘lesson learned’ I’m not quite sure where I stand.
Day 3: In Science today students had to complete some questions out of the textbook, but we didn’t have enough time to finish it during class. I went to the office to photocopy the page and stopped dead in my tracks….how much have I photocopied this year? Have I passed the 10% threshold? Am I breaking the law by giving my students homework? I know what their answer would be….
Day 4: Today turned out to be no better – I wanted to do choral reading with my class to practice our fluency and so photocopied a passage for each student in the class – EVERY student had their own copy….I’m pretty sure that’s illegal, too. (the photocopying, not the choral reading….though I’m pretty sure that it is banned in some countries)
Day 5: Friday fun day! Today we got to watch a few funny videos on Youtube before the afternoon bell…..is that copyrighted, too? Definitely remixed. And there were music tracks – were there permissions granted? And I just encouraged it by showing it for entertainment. Oh man, Friday’s aren’t so much fun anymore……
Day 6: It’s a fresh start this week and I’m determined not to break any copyright laws. I do not too bad until just after recess when I hand out new spelling lists for the week to my students. Oops…photocopied that one right out of the book. Am I ever going to learn? It seems I’m doomed.
Day 7: In current events today we talked about all sorts of news stories from around the world…..but forgot to mention our sources. Oh no, I’m having a direct hand in creating a whole new generation of anti-copyrighters. Years from now they’ll look back and realize that it’s all my fault – I was the one who failed to teach them properly, I am why they are being charged for copyright infringement….how will I sleep tonight?
Day 8: Because they won our food bank challenge, my class earned a movie afternoon this week. I don’t have enough money in my account to cover the cost of a bus, movie tickets and popcorn….hmm, maybe I could just bring in a movie from home…..but I have a hazy recollection of a bright red or blue screen saying something about public performances and huge fines….hmmm, might have to look into that – for next time….
Day 9: I’m actually afraid to tell what I did in class today, just in case someone is reading this. Eek!
Day 10: Fun Fridays again…this morning started off with fun music on the PA system……it all went downhill from there….
Day 11: I’m beginning to think that everything I do is illegal! This morning I was caught quoting a line from a favourite movie…..’you cut me deep, Shrek’ – ack! I did it again….will this senseless abuse of copyright never end?
Day 12: My class is finishing their novel studies this week…..wait – did I break any copyright rules by having students collect new terms from their novels? Read aloud to each other? Write journal entries in character? Read the books at all? One can never be too safe….no more reading for this class!
Day 13: Art class again – this time we were discussing famous artists. Each student chose a favourite piece of famous artwork and tried to recreate it using paints and pastels….oh no – is DaVinci’s work already past the allotted copyright time or has an extension been put on it?
Day 14: It was little Johnny’s birthday today…..there were tears when I suggested we sing something other than Happy Birthday as it’s a copyrighted song…..I relented and allowed my students to be criminals. Again.
Day 15: Today was slideshow day…students got to pull together pictures that they could tie to our novels and create an advertisement for the book. Oh boy….don’t even get me started on musical accompaniment!
Day 16: At our staff meeting today our principal handed out copies of an outline of a new program being introduced in the district. Ha! I relished in the fact that I’m not the only one….
Day 17: In art this afternoon we painted mason jars with glue and food colouring – an idea I got on Pinterest. I think I’m in trouble – I told my students I got the idea from Pinterest but I didn’t specify who from. (For that matter, it probably wasn’t even that lady’s idea….I’m sure she got it from someone who got it from someone who…oh man, I give up!)
Day 18: Another stellar day in the classroom….this afternoon we looked for vocabulary words in our textbook and copied down the definitions! Oh the insanity….
Day 19: In our assembly this morning we sang Oh Canada…I’m not sure but I think that might have been illegal…..
Day 20: After four weeks of being copyright aware, I’m giving up. Everything I do could be misconstrued as illegal, every copy I make, every song I play, every video we watch….it’s too much. I’m going back to the old ways, paper and pencil, make up a story, create your own learning. ….. It was all going fine until Sammy claimed Johnny was infringing on his rights to his own intellectual property by copying from his paper…….ugh!
If this all seems a little bit silly, it is. After watching RIP: A Remixers Manifesto I was struck by the insane amount of money corporations are suing for over copyright infringements and how much – potentially – Girl Talk could be on the hook for by releasing his albums. I understand the problem with profiting from other people’s work and agree that you should not be able to resell or in other ways profit on the backs of others. But as a teacher, I use resources (other people’s work) on a regular basis. I photocopy from textbooks or use novel study packages (sometimes printed from the internet), I play songs and videos in class or use songs to accompany slideshows and I have students create their own versions of famous artworks (or ideas found on the internet) as an attempt to develop in them an appreciation of art and culture. Original thought is becoming a rare thing and most ideas (in the classroom and the world) are copied from a previously similar train of thought. Even in our reading we work on connecting ideas to other media that we’ve read or seen or things that we know occur in the world around us.
My problem with copyright infringement lawsuits – or regulations I suppose – is that if someone is sued and found guilty of copyright infringement, little to none of the money they are required to pay actually finds its way into the hands of the original artist. Therefore, the only ones benefitting from copyright are the big corporations and their lawyers who have already made a lot of money and are simply trying to protect their right to make even more.
When a problem such as this arises, typically many creative minds get together to try to come up with a solution. In Lessig’s speech about the life of Aaron Swartz, he speaks about how Aaron and others got together to make information widely available to the public using loopholes in various systems. By accessing stored data and rewriting storage codes they were able to provide efficient access to all while avoiding infringing any copyrights. Though many were upset at the ‘underhanded’ way the information was distributed, there was a solution developed that helped many and only hurt a very few – again the holders of the information. It seems that in all too many cases it comes down time and again to money. Fees can be charged to provide access to information and, hey, we all want to make a buck, right?
The problem that I have here isn’t paying for the information or media (I believe that everyone does deserve to profit from their own original works). The problem I have is the inflated cost of that information or media because I am also having to pay a plethora of middlemen and corporations for the right to access that which isn’t theirs to profit from in the first place.
So how do we fix this problem? How do we create a ‘culture based on sharing’ when doing just that opens us up to the potential of being sued? In many ways I think that people such as Aaron Swartz, Gregg Gillis (Girl Talk) – even Radiohead - are on the right track and leading the masses towards a solution to this problem.