Copyright Symbols - cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by Mike Seyfang
Objectives
- Identify copyright law's design to promote creativity and growth of knowledge, considering rights of both owners and users
- Explain how fair use ensures that copyright law does not limit First Amendment rights
- Distinguish ways in which copyright law has expanded to protect owners over a period of time
- Describe how fair use enables flexibility to be relevant and useful to many creative communities
Rationale
Understanding copyright, involves understanding the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights. The First Amendment specifically protects a handful of freedoms related to religion, speech, petitions, assembly, and the press. Principally, these protections preserve the freedom of self-expression. The concept of copyright is built upon the First Amendment and the greater US Constitution, legal documents that establish rights and limitations.
The purpose of copyright is to promote creativity, as well as the use and advancement of knowledge. Copyright law is intended to balance the rights of users and owners of intellectual property. However, there are far too many misconceptions about copyright that threaten both the advancement of learning and knowledge and users rights of fair use and free speech, all vital elements for a healthy democracy.
In a world where digital technology makes it easier than ever to copy, share, use, modify, repurpose, and distribute, it is more vital than ever that individuals understand the implications of copyright, fair use, and free speech so they can both exercise their rights and avoid criminality.
Challenge
Your challenge is to gain a deeper understanding of copyright as a legal concept, as well as the provision of fair use, through reading, discussion, critical thinking, and writing. Gaining a deeper, more nuanced understanding will help you apply a reasoning process that considers the context and situation when exercising your right to fair use of copyrighted material.
Instructions
Please complete the following activities.
Required Viewing
Watch the video "What's Copyright?" from the Media Education Lab, now located at University of Rhode Island.
After watching the video, replay the song while following along with the lyrics (pdf) and note how your perceptions of copyright may have changed from your initial assumptions of the concept.
Required Reading
Read "Understanding Copyright" (pdf) by Renee Hobbs, Katie Donnelly and Sandra Braman, which provides an general introduction to concepts and relationships between copyright, fair use, and free speech.
Recommended Reading
- "The Purpose of Copyright" by Lydia Pallas Loren @ Open Spaces Quarterly
- "Copy This Essay: How Fair Use Doctrine Harms Free Speech and How Copying Serves It" by Rebecca Tushnet @ The Yale Law Journal
Required Writing
Make two lists, one for everything you learned about copyright after the video and reading and another with all the questions you now have about copyright? Be prepared to share them in class.
Legal
All copyright lessons are inspired by and adapted from the Copyright And Fair Use: Lesson Plans for High School, College and Graduate Education work of Media Education Lab Professor Renee Hobbs at the University of Rhode Island's Harrington School of Communication and Media.
