Teacher Candidate: Copyright

Copyright laws protect the original work of authors by restricting the rights of others to use and distribute them. A formal copyright document is not required to confirm the copyright on a production, the mere act of creating it is enough for a copyright to exist. Some examples of items that copyrights apply to are books, television shows, movies, music, music videos and paintings.

The restrictions of copyrights can be modified with permission from the author and there are benefits of doing this. The benefit to users is that the work is made available to them for use and, for the author, they maintain control of the terms of use. Other benefits of a modified copyright include the ability of users to build on the knowledge and products that are copyrighted for the betterment of their audience and authors are not tasked with having to grant permission each and every time a request is made for use of their work. One hub for works of authors that have agreed to modified copyrights is creativecommons.org where the terms of use are made known to users.

Despite the restrictions of a copyright, a copyrighted work can be used in Canada for educational purposes and thankfully so. Some teacher candidates from a different time can remember watching film strips in class with a narrated recording from a tape player. There was almost a conditioned reaction to either fall asleep or goof around with your neighbor. It was certainly more engaging to watch movies that were current at the time like The Matrix to illustrate points about philosophy or A Beautiful Mind in an abnormal psychology class as an example of what a schizophrenic condition can look like. These popular culture works were far more engaging than an outdated film strip.

The most important thing to impress upon students regarding copyright is that they need to know what a copyright is and be aware of what is and what isn’t copyrighted so they can correctly cite works and ideas that aren’t theirs, and by doing so avoid negative and potentially legal consequences. As educators we should lead by example in this regard and practice the behaviours we are preaching.