Digital Images
What's Legal, What's Fair, and How to Tell the Difference
Rationale
High school students are certainly under the impression that if it's on the Internet, it's free and it's true.
The research unit begins with an overview of understanding Copyright, Fair Use, & Public Domain since this is the lesson that establishes the precedent that a person can't take things from the Internet just because they're there.
If there's confusion about the difference among the three terms, don't feel alone. Copyright is the law that protects the works of authors, artists, and composers from having their work copied without permission. Fair use allows the use of a limited amount of copyrighted material for educational purposes as long as the user uses only a small part of it and doesn't use the material for profit. Finally, works that are part of the public domain aren't copyrighted and can be used without permission, although credit should be given.
Frontload of Knowledge
Copyright and Fair Use Animation
Hands-On Activity
New Information
Fair Use
Fair Use Quiz
Transformativeness
For a student or teacher to claim fair use of copyrighted material based on transformativeness, the nature of the intended work must be analyzed.
Use these questions to analyze the material:
- Does the new work add value?
- Has the new work been repurposed?
- Has the new work created a new audience?
- Is there a new expression, new meaning, or new message in the new work?
What has the student done with the copyrighted material? Has the student TRANSFORMED the original work or simply COPIED and PASTED? Copying and pasting do not transform.
"Transformativeness" then builds upon, modifies, and reworks the original content.
Creative Commons
final product
Find and "transform" an image. Provide appropriate CC attribution to your created image. Follow the example. Airdrop your final product to me.
- Explore Flickr Creative Commons Share-Alike or Creative Commons Search and find an image.
- Using PicMonkey or Ribbet, play with auto adjust, special effects, touch-ups, frames, shapes, textures, & text! You can edit for free by uploading an image, no need to create an account. Save your new creation to your computer.
- Provide appropriate CC Attribution to the created image. Look at this example. On the example below, note the CC attribution.