Technology has always made copyright law a topic more should attempt to understand. It became easy to copy and paste all kinds of creative works whether music, text, or imagery. Certainly, educators take advantage of copy and paste opportunities hopefully striving to stay within the limits outlined as fair use.
One of the issues with copyright and fair use is that what is allowed is unclear and this challenge for educators becomes evident in what I would describe as the difference between classroom use and publication. When I try to teach this topic I make use of the TEACH act as evidence for my perspective which essentially is that the use of copied material on the open web (not limited to those in a class and protected to prevent general exposure) is publication and is thus more limiting for most use of content created by others.
The House just approved new legislation related to copyright. If this proposal reaches the Senate floor which has been an issue for proposals coming from the House lately and is approved, the legislation makes it easier for copyright holders to go after copyright violators for compensation. The bill proposes the development of what is described as a small claims court for copyright and proposes that this approach would offer legal remedies to photographers and other individuals who create content on a relatively small scale. If passed into law, I do think educators will have to be more careful.
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