Quote 1
“While there are a few well defined use cases in which the use of copyrighted material is definitely legal or definitely illegal in the US, there is a large gulf of practices that fall somewhere in between.”
I believe that this quote from the article summarizes the major themes of this week because it explains, in very simple terms, the confusing nature of copyright laws. Even in class, most of what we discussed involved navigating the complications of using different song, video, or visual arts in the classroom and what constitutes “fair use.”
Quote 2
“However, note that not everyone recommends the same things, and the won’t-get-you-sued standard and the won’t-get-you-found-liable standard can be very different. In some cases, reproducing the entire work is fair use.”
This raises questions for me because of the lack of a clear definition of what “fair use” really is. I understand it conceptually, but throwing in the fact that there are random exceptions only further deters me from looking into it. Luckily, the graphic “Can I Use It?” clears a lot of things up.
Quote 3
“There is no simple formula, but the more boxes you tick under “favoring fair use” and the less you tick under “opposing fair use,” the safer you are.”
I disagree with the first statement. I think we, as educators, tend to overcomplicate things, leaving a lot of students completely lost, at times. In the rest of the statement, the author successfully simplifies the idea. I think leaving out all of the statements that overstate the complexity of copyright laws and fair use may ease a little bit of the anxiety surrounding the topic.
