Week 2 – Free Post Blog – Wimba lessons on copyright

The wimba session for the second week stayed focused on the copy right issues while taking them to a deeper level. Surveying was done to see if recall of the general facts were remembered. Mostly the discussion stayed on the black and white of the concept because going down the road of the grey is really the domain of the lawyers and so often those arguments are so case specific the discussion could last forever. The most pertinent point was that copyright is about permission and not so much about what you do. If you have time to get permission for everything you want to use and it is granted and you pay whatever they might ask for using it and you have that agreement well documented, then you are good. The problem is no one has that kind of time or resource to pull that off. And who is to say you will obtain the permission you are seeking. In some cases you don't have to worry about that permission because you actually buy the permission when you buy the media.

There are also other situations when you can take your chances with the defensible position of fair use. No guarantees, however, if you stick closely to the fair use guidelines you shouldn't have to worry about legal action. Push the boundaries though and you might have to sweat some pressure from legal communication.

Now we all live in the "give it to me now" era so the creative commons solution allows conscientious creators to give the permission to use their work and to what extent by tagging the work with levels of permissions as it is published. This helps speed up the permission process and also relieves the headaches of managing requests of permission. I think it is a good idea and should be promoted by use creators of educational media.

So get ready to publish our AR projects and take our place in the educational leadership efforts to bring the educational institutions into the 21st century.