Teacher Info: Copyright



Teacher Info: Copyright

Students may want to use their favourite piece of commercially produced music or images and music they have downloaded from the internet. There may be copyright issues involved in doing this. Useful information is provided by the Australian Copyright Council at .au/publications/infosheets.htm. The Copyright Council does not allow direct linking to these information pages but the most relevant sheets are referred to below. Note that the Australian Copyright Council allows individuals to download one copy of each Information Sheet.

Why do we have copyright?

It may be useful to explain to students that although some artists and musicians are rich, most struggle to make a living and copyright is a way of making sure they get paid for their work. Musicians might get some money from playing live, and copyright is there to help them get a little money every time someone uses their music. For example, they get paid a little every time their song is played on the radio. Of course, only the really big hits get played often on the radio. Paying the copyright fee if students use someone’s music or photos (such as in a digital story) is not only a legal requirement but also helps to support their favourite musicians and artists.

Images and music on the internet

Just because it’s on the internet doesn’t mean it’s free! The music and images that students find on the internet may be copyright protected. Sometimes permission to download material is given on the website itself. Otherwise the copyright owners need to be contacted to ask for permission to use the material. Failure to do this is an infringement of the copyright law. (See Information Sheet G56 Internet: copying and downloading material). There may be exceptions if the copyright material is being used for a student assignment (such as a digital story). However, this does not apply if the work produced will be shown in a non-domestic situation. (For more information, see Information Sheet GO48v10 Educational institutions: introduction to copyright and Information Sheet G38 Music: use in student films and home videos).

Avoiding copyright difficulties when making digital stories

It is advisable to steer students towards copyright-free material because applying for copyright permission can be difficult, and not complying with copyright laws may incur a fine. To assist with this:

▪ The Web Links section of this resource kit includes links to copyright-free material.

▪ The Gallery section of this resource kit contains a selection of copyright-free photos and special effects.

▪ Microsoft Photo Story 3 includes access to copyright-free music that students can access and customise to add background music to their digital stories.

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download