Part 1: March 24 (morning)

I noticed a significant difference in tone between information about fair use from the Center for Media and Social Impact (n.d.) compared to the information I found about heeding copyright from the Smartcopying website (National Copyright Unit, n.d.). I presume the difference is related to differing regulations for copyright in the US versus Australia. A key understanding I got when reading about fair use is that it seeks to balance the rights of owners and users (Center for Media and Social Impact [CMSI], n.d., para. 24). Reading this in contrast to the cautionary, even punitive, language of the Smartcopying website lead me to appreciate the concept of fair use, even though I can see how the freedom and and flexibility of fair use could lead to confusion (CMSI, n.d., para. 19).

As a teacher who has only worked at international schools overseas I am curious about whose jurisdiction we fall under. I presume it has to do with the guidelines at play in the country where the material was created. Quite a complicated situation!

Part 2: March 24 (afternoon)

With further reading in Module 2.4 I realize that clarifying copyright internationally is another beautiful feature of Creative Commons [CC]. I first encountered information about the “ported” license when using the CC ‘Choose a License’ feature to decide how to license my CSU learning reflection blog. At the time I did not understand the significance of the 4.0 ported license but after reading Fitzgerald and Hooper (2013, para. 18-20) I found the answer to my own question about international copyright.

Creative Commons licenses seem to better fit with the fair use guidelines than with the Australian copyright guidelines. As explained by CMSI, the purpose of copyright is “to promote the advancement of knowledge through balancing the rights of owners and users” (n.d, para. 24). Creative Commons echoes this message with their motto: “When we share, everyone wins” (Creative Commons, n.d.). I think students as well as teachers can get excited about copyright education if it is presented through the positive messages of CMSI and CC.

References

Center for Media and Social Impact. (n.d.). Code of best practices in fair use for media literacy education. Retrieved from http://www.cmsimpact.org/fair-use/related-materials/codes/code-best-practices-fair-use-media-literacy-education.

Creative Commons. (n.d.). Share your work. Retrieve from Creative Commons website: https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/

Fitzgerald, A. and Hooper, N. (2013, December 19). Explainer: Creative Commons [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://theconversation.com/explainer-creative-commons-21341.

National Copyright Unit. (n.d.). Smartcopying. Retrieved from http://www.smartcopying.edu.au/