Last week’s copyright Jeopardy really demonstrated how confusing and complicated copyright law can be. It is often easy to forget that materials are copyrighted and that there are laws to protect distribution of protected items. With the Internet, copying only takes a few clicks of the mouse. It is often difficult to determine what would be considered fair use. Something I never thought about was showing a movie in school. I had no idea that schools had to obtain a license in order to show a movie. I have been in a class where photocopies of material from a book were distributed to students. Outside of schools, copyright seems to be violated all the time. CDs and DVDs are being illegally copied and sold. It is certainly the job of the teacher to teach copyright respect. The classroom is probably the only place where copyright law is ever really mentioned and addressed. It is good to discuss copyright laws with students at an early age, explain what it is and give examples of what is fair use and what is not. Copyright law is something everyone needs to be aware of.
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