YouTube Copyright Basics

YouTube has an entertaining video on copyright law featuring the puppets Glove and Boots.

YouTube Copyright Basics



Find more copyright information at:
www.youtube.com/yt/copyright

Music Clearance Guidelines

The website clearance.com has a page on how to get clearance for a song you may want in your video. Another pages explains Public Domain. It also has a useful list of clearance terms.

Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy

The Center for Social Media has published a free report of interest to teachers titled, Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy.

This document is a code of best practices that helps educators using media literacy concepts and techniques to interpret the copyright doctrine of fair use. Fair use is the right to use copyrighted material without permission or payment under some circumstances—especially when the cultural or social benefits of the use are predominant. It is a general right that applies even in situations where the law provides no specific authorization for the use in question—as it does for certain narrowly defined classroom activities.

This guide identifies five principles that represent the media literacy education community’s current consensus about acceptable practices for the fair use of copyrighted materials, wherever and however it occurs: in K–12 education, in higher education, in nonprofit organizations that offer programs for children and youth, and in adult education.

Make Internet TV.org

MakeInternetTV.org is a concise website that give an overview on how to make video for the web. The best page is its explanation of copyright law and creative commons rules.

Copyright & Fair Use Resources

The Center for Social Media at American University has a lot of great resources related to the fair use of copyrighted material. They have a new Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video.

Fair use is the right, in some circumstances, to quote copyrighted material without asking permission or paying for it. It is a crucial feature of copyright law and what keeps copyright from being censorship. You can invoke fair use when the value to the public of what you are saying outweighs the cost to the private owner of the copyright.

Teacher's Guide to Intellectual Property Rights

Mircosoft is sponsoring an initiative to teach intellectual property rights to middle and high school students. Information Week has an article about it which notes:

Microsoft's survey found that about half of the teenagers surveyed (49%) said they are not familiar with the rules and guidelines for downloading content from the Internet. Only 11% understood the rules well, and of those, 82% said downloading content illegally merits punishment. Among those unfamiliar with the law, only 57% supported punishment for intellectual property violations.

To address this issue they have set up The Teacher's Guide to Intellectual Property Rights. have a set up a website with curriculum aimed at 8th-10th grade students, but which is modifiable for upper grades. This curriculum includes:

Four thematic units comprise the IPR Education Curriculum. Within each unit are stand-alone yet complementary lesson plans (activities) that focus on and play off of an IPR-related scenario presented through a Case Study.

Guiding Questions help set the expectation for what students will learn in each unit, and Baseline and Post-Unit Assessments serve to gauge changes in student knowledge and perceptions about IP. Each unit consists of 4-6 lesson plans (activities), including a Culminating Activity that serves as a project-based unit assessment.

To support this initiative, Microsoft has launched MyBytes, a web site where students can create custom ringtones, share content, and learn more about intellectual property rights.