This week's topic has been a brutal slap in the face for me, as I became aware of the fact that I, quite unintentionally, have not been appropriately respectful of intellectual property. First of all, according to Wherry as quoted in Butler's article "Social Responsibility: Intellectual Property Defined," intellectual property is "the fruit of one's intellect." This definition wasn't quite enough for me, so I looked a little further. The World Intellectual Property Organization provided me with a much more detailed definition: "Intellectual property refers to creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce." Once I knew this, and started to read a couple of the articles, it became obvious to me that I have been a copyright offender, and as a result so have my students. Let me explain. . . The Internet has been a great tool for teachers in allowing them to enhance projects and lessons in many ways. It has helped to enhance my lessons by giving me access to literally millions of articles, poems, song lyrics, and so on, which can be easily printed and copied. I have used these to develop synthesis response questions for my senior English students; lessons on analysis of song lyrics, using these same lyrics as links to periods in history, and as springboards for class discussions, and this is only a short list of how I have used the Internet's "treasures" in my lessons. I have freely used the works of others without asking their permission; however, I have always credited the sources, but according to copyright laws, this is not enough.
As for my students, I can't count the times when I have allowed them to include graphics from the Internet for their projects such as powerpoints and posters. In fact, I have encouraged them to use graphics to make their projects aesthetically pleasing. At the same time, I have insisted that they copy and paste the URL where they have taken these from, but after this week's discussion, I realize that this does not quite cover it when it comes down to copyright laws.
I am still a little confused when it comes to copyright on the Internet, and I clearly need to do some more research/reading when it comes to this topic. For example, when I have my students do their poetry analysis project are they not allowed to use music lyrics from the Internet, or use other poems posted there? I am also not quite sure about the pre-Creative Commons materials. How difficult or easy is it to make contact with people who posted materials on the Internet 7 years ago? Unfortunately, there are numerous pictures on the Internet (Flickr is a prime example) that might be great to include in student or teacher works, but cannot be used because permission is not granted in time for the project's completion. The difficulty arises when the original owners of the work no longer visit or check the site where they originally posted their materials. 
This past week I made a concerted effort to only use materials covered under Creative Commons - this was not easy! Partly because this is a relatively new form of dealing with intellectual property, so there still isn't that much out there. However, I did find an article that had a Creative Commons licence, for my discussion on moral dilemma's, and this tied in nicely with the short story "Just Lather, That's All" that I teach in grade 12. So, I realize it is not impossible to find materials that support my teaching, but it is certainly more time consuming. What this means for me, and for my colleagues who adhere to Creative Commons, is that we need to allow ourselves enough time to sift through the information located on the Web. We also need to make ourselves aware of websites that promote Creative Commons.
As for students, I believe many students understand what plagiarism is, but I agree with Tammy Morris' perspective in "Do Students Respect Intellectual Property?" that they do not necessarily understand the issues surrounding copyright, and this can be attributed to the fact that their teachers do not understand it either. Furthermore, I don't know how many of them have heard of Creative Commons. So, I went in search of something that would assist me in trying to explain to my students about Creative Commons, and arrived at this website, which I found quite useful. In particular the Sharing Creative Works slideshow, which has a simple, clear explanation of how Creative Commons works (I think this is accessible to students starting in grade 4, but I am just guessing here).
I believe that most teachers understand what copyright is when it comes to paper materials, but I really believe that there is a misconception that the information found on the Internet is "free for all." After all, if someone is posting something on the Web for the world to see, shouldn't they be prepared to have others use it??? Well the reality is no, the person should have the right to stipulate how he wants the materials used or not used. I believe that it is just a matter of bringing teachers and students up to speed with regards to Creative Commons and copyright on the Internet.
One of the discussion questions this week asked who should be responsible for copyright in the schoolhouse. There was mention made that it is everyone's responsibility, but I tend to think that perhaps one person (and I do believe it should be the teacher-librarian) should be the one to help keep teacher's up-to-date. It would be helpful to have someone who could periodically put on a brief after-school presentation on copyright, Creative Commons, etc. This would hopefully encourage teachers to become aware of what they are doing, and adhere to these laws. I also see this as being beneficial to the new teachers coming into the school. No where in my pre-service training do I remember any discussion of copyright, and I would hazard to guess that this is the case for many teachers currently entering the profession.
I believe in this case it is not easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission. We need to be respectful of people's intellectual property.
Photo courtesy of Bettina Tizzy
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