(Subject to ongoing revision)
Want to use images, video clips, or audio you found online in your project? You can do that, but you should use only those media files that are clearly marked as being available for reuse. The language might vary, such as “fair use,” “creative commons,” “copyright free,” “royalty free,” and so on, but what’s important is that the media is “labeled for reuse.” If you start with media files that have that designation, you don’t have to worry about whether you might be violating any copyright laws.
Just because a media file is publicly available, that doesn’t mean it’s in the public domain! Someone may own the copyright for that file, which means you can’t use it without permission.
If you were making a multimedia project for classroom viewing only, you would be protected under the “educational fair use” provisions, which give you a lot more freedom and flexibility to use the media you find online. To some extent that’s my justification for not requiring you to use only images that were “labeled for reuse” in your class blog headers, although perhaps I should do that.
But because you’ll be publishing your projects on public web sites, you’ll need to abide by the same copyright rules as everyone else. Posting copyright protected material to sites like that can get you into big trouble! That’s particularly true for popular music and clips from movies or TV shows.
You can find lots of resources online to help you better understand fair use. Below are a few links I’ve found that might be helpful as well as a feed of the most recent links I’ve saved to my Diigo account with the tag “fair use.” If you come across a site you find particularly helpful in sorting through fair use issues, please share the link with me!
LINKS: WORTH A LOOK
- The Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education (from the Center for Social Media — see esp. FOUR: Student Use of Copyrighted Material)
- Creative Commons web site
- YouTube’s Copyright School
- Citing Sources in Multimedia Projects
- Copyright and Digital Storytelling
- Understanding Fair Use for Digital Learning
- YouTube’s Fair Use tool addresses disputes over copyright violation claims
- The Complete Guide To Fair Use & YouTube
- Wikipedia entry on Fair Use
- Study: YouTube uploaders don’t understand Fair Use
- Strategies for Fair Use (from the Purdue OWL)
MY RECENT DIIGO LINKS TAGGED “FAIR USE”
- Using Google Docs to Create Digital Kits for Student Projects - The Tempered Radical (03-28-12)
- Fair Use & Digital Media (Extended Version) (01-30-12)
- Free Technology for Teachers: Video - How to Find Creative Commons Images (01-16-12)
- Remixing Media Literacy Education: Students 'Writing' with New Media Technologies (08-04-11)
- Purdue OWL: Strategies for Fair Use (08-04-11)
- FAIR USE PROPOSALS FOR DIGITAL IMAGES (08-04-11)
- ccMixter - Welcome to ccMixter (04-15-11)
- TheJUMP v1.2 - Re/mix & Memes | TheJUMP (03-24-11)
- Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education (08-21-10)
