Copyright is treated by some as a furious creature who will devour any and all that displease it and by others as a mere side-thought or not even a consideration. Anyone who has been in a school when a copyright audit has been completed (I’ve been lucky/unlucky enough to do it twice) knows that copyright is anything but a mere side-thought when it comes to schools paying their copyright dues.
It all comes down to a simple question: Is it reasonable for someone to be fairly compensated for their work? If your answer is no, how about your employer decides when and which hours you work to pay you for? Copyright is no different. It is about making sure that authors, publishers, artists, directors, etc. are fairly paid for their works.
The argument, ‘I did not know’ will not be sufficient if you are found in breach of copyright, nor should it. As a professional it is part of our duty to be informed and as a teacher librarian, the added duty to inform others. Students also need to be taught about importance of copyright and how it works. The smartcopying website (https://smartcopying.edu.au/) explains it all in relatively simple terms.
One way to avoid copyright issues is to embrace Creative Commons (CC) when possible. It is easy to understand and easy to adhere to the requirements set down by the original author; everything from completely free use through to restricted use where you must acknowledge author, cannot edit or change or use for commercial purposes. The beautiful thing about CC is that it only works because people are willing to share their creations. I do feel that by using CC I should also contribute to its ever-growing base of images, video and other content. Check out https://creativecommons.org/ for more information.