This was a lot of information to take in and the issues were
complicated. I felt that the sequencing of the parts presented, 1, 2 & 3
flowed well educationally. As my kids say, “I just got schooled!” In this case,
it was a relevant topic that has been confusing to me for some years so I was
grateful for the schooling.
I have 3 kids. My daughter, the youngest, is 19 so I have
been down and around the slippery slopes of torrent cafes with my kids. While I
learned many details about current Copyright Law, Fair Use and Creative Commons
by watching this collection of videos, I was most impressed with the final
selection, the TED talk given by Larry Lessig. My own children and my students
are part of what Lessig refers to as, “Remix Culture”. I found the presentation profound and it left
me with many more questions than answers. What I cannot deny is that technology
has changed our kids. Technology is a
literacy for this generation. If indeed we are living in “an age of prohibition”,
it is time to begin a reformation that will both allow creativity and some form
of protection. I have no idea what that will look like, but I doubt that
current Copyright Law can continue to hold relevancy in the face of an entire
generation of “pirates”.
photo courtesy of gigamom.com
Lori,
ReplyDeleteI concur with you about being schooled or reschooled on this topic of copyright and fair use. I wish I had these videos when I was teaching the topic of plagiarism at a local college of mine. It would have made the “pill” a little easier to swallow. Just telling students that is breaking the law is not enough. The first video I found was a comedic was of explaining copyright infringement. The TED presentation helped me understand why our students think the way they do. It is with this in mind that if I ever have to teach the topic again I will definitely have an arsenal of videos to show them so maybe they will get the point.
Golda
It is indeed time, Lori, that we do what we can to improve copyright so that it reflect real usage AND honors the needs of artists, instead of making this current generation criminals for doing what is the natural process of being artists, imitation.
ReplyDelete