Journal Reflection #3

Have you ever read something, stopped and realized you have no idea what you just read? I've done that all week. Copyright, plagiarism, public domain, fair use, all these terms have my head spinning. Was this week overwhelming? Yes. So many videos and reading, and self questioning. It really has me questioning how many times I did something that could be considered copyright infringement. I really need to do better and know better, especially if I want to model these behaviors for my students as part of being a good digital citizen.

With that being said, I feel like I have learned a lot this week. I enjoyed the article about the monkey that took the selfie and asked the oh so important question: who owns the selfie? Turns out the human owns the selfie and not an animal. To me it was funny that the copyright regulation had to be updated to state that animals could not own the image. This week I also learned about how James Billington served for 28 years as the Librarian of Congress, a position I had no idea existed. It is fascinating to try and understand everything he saw while he held the title. After reading the Hudson Institute’s white paper, I am still trying to decide if there should be a separation between the U.S. Copyright Office and the Library of Congress, although the authors of the white paper make a good case for why there should be a separation. I am leaning towards separation. The library has different priorities than the copyright office. The authors believe that by separating, the office could “enhance the $1.1 trillion copyright sector if it is removed from the Library of Congress” (Tepp and Oman, pg. 1). Separation from the Library of Congress could give the U.S. Copyright Office the modernization it needs in order to meet the needs in the 21st century, especially since copyright is prevalent in the digital world.

This week we were also asked to define and give examples of plagiarism, copyright infringement, attribution, and transformation. Plagiarism is taking someone else's work (ideas, words, images) and presenting it as your own. In my kindergarten classroom, my kids struggle with writing. One student that can write will try and help a friend and write something for them. I try my best to explain why we can not write for others and let others use their work. Copyright infringement is reproducing work without consent of the original source. My daughter recently uploaded a video on Youtube and used music she did not own the rights to. She needs to stop uploading videos on Youtube! Youtube removed the video. Attribution is giving credit to the original source or creator. An example of attribution giving credit to a photo or image used in work. Add the title, author, source, and licence for good measure. Transformation is changing or adding something to a source or work without taking credit for the origin. An example would be using work to create a parody.

Copyright laws have existed for centuries, so this week we saw a bit of how it started, and how it's going. It has been a challenging week learning so many terms and legal aspects of being a digital citizen. As we continue to move forward, I want to focus on continuing to model those good behaviors for my students when it comes to all things copyright. Fair use and the Teach Act help us educators, but we still need to know and abide by copyright laws.

Reference

Tepp, S., & Oman, R. (2015). A 21st century copyright office: The conservative case for reform. Hudson Institute.