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My Understanding of ©

My first impression is that, with as often as copyright laws change, the fact this book was published in 2005 means there is a good chance a portion of this chapter is out of date.

I read.  I read this chapter from a real book! I took notes and I annotated. Unfortunately, this topic needs a whole course to itself!!

I’m a big picture person and this was the only big picture I could muster: Copyrighting is complicated, yet simple. There are the laws, what’s legal and not legal, and then there is what’s “right”. There’s digital copy and there’s hard copy and they are the same, but different.

Then there were the few details that stood out:

• I still don’t understand “fair use” but that’s okay because many others don’t either.
• I run into “orphan works”– a lot
• Limiting access works.
• My employer may own some of my work, but probably not.
• My classroom is not the same as my class page when it comes to following copyright quidlines.
• its easier (cheaper) to fix web violations than those in hard copy
• Since 1989, I’m copyrighted without even putting a notice on my work but it’s wise to do so.
• Submitting an application to copyright digital work is complicated and mostly unnecessary.
• Making CD-ROMs can require an insane amount of rights for use of copyrighted material.

Note of importance here. I’ve actually had lawyers contact me about copyright issues.  My employer purchased the use of Document Based Question binders for its Social Studies teachers from the DBQ Project.

A teacher in my department had taken an essay lesson from the DBQ binder, scanned it, and posted it on her private class page, that only her students had access to. In a few weeks time a lawyer called our school to ask it be removed.  She did.  They called again when a copy of another assignment was found on a page of her website that was archived.  She and I had no clue how they knew the essay was there, but they did. The odd thing is, DBQ Project essays can be found all over the internet. I know, I’ve downloaded a few from binders that my employer didn’t purchase.

Local Museums and ©

I wasn’t confident, after reading the book, on what to look for on a website for copyrighting so I Googled it.   Then I went to three of the suggested sites:

Reston Museum 

This site’s copyright, shown above, isn’t copyrighted properly. There is no date.

Manassas Museum System

This site’s copyright, shown above, isn’t copyrighted properly either.  Its note is not only out of date, its not on every page.  This copyright is only found on a separate link.

Fredericksburg Area Museum

This site’s copyright, shown above, is copyrighted properly. There is a date AND its posted on every page!!

So if I’m right, only one of the three sites I visited was copyrighted correctly.  If I’m wrong, I need to reread the chapter!!