I actually did the reading on this some time ago now, or at least I think it was. I've been rushing through everything so much that I've no idea where I'm supposed to be, and the forums seem to be discussing topics I ploughed through weeks ago. Nevertheless, I thought I might revisit this one, mainly as I had a copyright run in with Facebook yesterday that highlighted the tricky nature of this area. I had actually attempted to find copyright free music to use in a little video I was putting together, but only after Facebook rejected my upload did I read the fine print. I was allowed to use it but not to publish it.. oops! After a bit more hunting I eventually found something I could use.
So, what about copyright issues in school? If it's so hard to stick to the law even when you take the time and effort, what hope is there that teachers and students will make that same effort? The answer is that they probably won't, but we can at least impress on them the importance of doing so. The good news is, however, that schools have so many exemptions for educational purposes you can pretty much use whatever you like, so long as it isn't pirated of course.
I think the main area to be careful in is the mass reproduction of material. Many teachers have been guilty of photocopying chunks of books for their classes, but this needs to be kept to a minimum. To be honest, most teachers avoid this kind of breach simply because their photocopying budget is limited. The greater danger is perhaps that they may scan and email it to their students, in high school anyway.
To be honest I don't think copyright is something many people think about ever. I knew a Prep teacher recently who produced a DVD for her class with photos taken throughout the year, accompanied by a musical track she'd copied from a Disney CD. She proposed to hand these out to all the parents of her children and proudly showed this off to the rest of the staff. No-one, including the senior members of staff, had any problem with this flagrant breach of the law because it didn't occur to them to consider the copyright issue. If we want to educate the students about this I think we need to run a few sessions with staff first.
