Copyright, Fair Use, and Plaigarism

To the School Community,

Welcome to our blog on the importance of informing our students, parents, and teachers on the do’s and don’ts of copyright, fair use, and plagiarism. We will be discussing basic definitions, as well as the appropriate and legitimate use of content/information obtained from the Internet.

We hope everyone involved in our community will find this blog informative and beneficial, especially when surfing the web!

Courtesy of Google Images

CopyRight

Courtesy of Google Images

The Internet provides students with an abundance of information, easily accessible and used for a variety of reasons. However, some of this information is protected by US copyright laws and must be respected (Roblyer & Doering, 2013). 

Teachers and students must initially understand the definition of copyright, as well as develop awareness to what is considered “legal” usage of copyright material and resources during classroom instruction.

According to Staffordshire University (2013a), “Copyright protects the physical expression of ideas. As soon as an idea is given physical form, e.g. a piece of writing, a photograph, music, a film, a web page, it is protected by copyright” (p. 1)

Educational Purposes:  Teachers however, have the permission and legal right to create “manual” copies of literary, dramatic, musical, architectural, or artistic/graphic works used for teaching (Staffordshire University, 2013b).

If however, a teacher or a student would like to use a certain photo in a project or assignment and the website does not state its copyright information, the student or teacher must contact the owner of the website and ask for permission to use the material (Cyberbee, 2012). 

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” (Center for Social Media, 2013). 

Rules for Fair Use for Teachers and Students:

• Print only small amounts of work and avoid using it repeatedly or year after year.
• Use and/or display images or graphics for teaching and instructional purposes.
• Teachers and students are allowed to use websites that are considered “public domain”. For example, work/articles created by the US government.
• Sharing links of websites rather than printing actual material is also considered fair use (University of Maryland, 2011).

Courtesy of Google Images

According to Cyberbee (2012), prior to collecting information from a website, students must ask themselves three questions.

1. Does it have a non-profit educational purpose?
2. What kind of material do you want to use?
3. Are you using only a small portion?
4. Will your use deprive the author from making money? (p.1) 

      Plagiarism and Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing is the development of a writing piece using our own words and personal ideas or thoughts. However, when we begin to copy and paste the author’s words and/or sentence structures, we are committing an unfortunate crime called Plagiarism. 

- Plagiarism occurs whether or not in-text citations have been used.

Courtesy of Google Images

Dangers of Plagiarism 

• Disciplinary actions may arise such as the suspension of a student from school or the firing of a teacher or professor, and/or
• Legal actions such as lawsuits from the original author or owner of the website (Tennant, 2013). 

How can students avoid Plagiarism?

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According to an article by Purdue Online Writing Lab (2010), the steps to effective paraphrasing are as follows:

1. Reread the original passage until you understand its full meaning.
2. Set the original aside, and write your paraphrase on a note card.
3. Jot down a few words below your paraphrase to remind you later how you envision using this material. At the top of the note card, write a key word or phrase to indicate the subject of your paraphrase.
4. Check your rendition with the original to make sure that your version accurately expresses all the essential information in a new form.
5. Use quotation marks to identify any unique term or phraseology you have borrowed exactly from the source.
6. Record the source (including the page) on your note card so that you can credit it easily if you decide to incorporate the material into your paper (Purdue OWL, 2010, p.1)

How can teachers prevent Plagiarism?

• According to Roblyer & Doering (2013), teachers should “teach students what plagiarism is, why it is wrong, what is permitted, and what is not” (p. 216). 
• Approval is needed in order to use specific information from a particular website (if copyrighted). However, if the website is not copyrighted, the teacher can allow students to use the actual URL as a reference at the end of their assigned project (Roblyer & Doering, 2013).
• Use websites such as TurnItIn as a source for checking for student plagiarism (Roblyer & Doering, 2013).  

Conclusion

Throughout this blog I have briefly discussed the definitions of copyright, and fair use, as well as the material and/or resources students and teachers may use “legally”. Also, I have explained briefly the meaning of plagiarism and what one can do to avoid such an act by preforming what is known as paraphrasing. 

Courtesy of Google Images

As a educators we must not only act in a professional manner while we respect the hard work and property of others, however, we must also educate our students on the importance of copyright and fair use, as well as the value of creating unique, individual work, which is not based on the work of others.

Thank you for your time and support on this matter! If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me by commenting on this section of the blog below.

DISCLAIMER: This blog is an assignment for an educational technology course at National University.

References

Center for Social Media. (2013). The Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education. Retrieved January 23^rd 2013 from http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/fair-use/related-materials/codes/code-best-practices-fair-use-media-literacy-education
 CyberBee. (2012). Copyright. Retrieved January 23^rd 2013 from http://www.cyberbee.com/cb_copyright.swf

Purdue OWL. (2010). Paraphrase: Write it in your own words. Retrieved January 23^rd 2013 from http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/619/1/

Roblyer, M.D & Doering, A.H. (2013). Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching. (6^th ed). Pearson Education: Upper Saddle River, NJ.

Staffordshire University. (2013a). What is Copyright?  Retrieved January 23^rd 2013 from http://www.staffs.ac.uk/legal/copyright/what_is_copyright/

Staffordshire University. (2013b). Copyright for Educational Purposes?  Retrieved January 23^rd 2013 from http://www.staffs.ac.uk/legal/copyright/educational_purposes/

Tennant, T. (2013). What are the dangers of Plagiarism? Retrieved January 23^rd 2013 from http://www.ehow.com/info_7916311_dangers-plagiarism.html

University of Maryland. (2011). Copyright and Fair Use in the UMUC Online or Face-to-Face Classroom. Retrieved January 23^rd 2013 from http://www.umuc.edu/library/libhow/copyright.cfm#fairuse_faculty