Digital Copyrights In The Classroom

On October 12, 1998, the U.S. Congress put the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), an act aimed at protecting digital goods such as software, DVD movies, online publications, and set up a general foundation for policing digital media. With the significant influx of media in use within the classroom, it is important to know what is and isn’t allowed by the DMCA and how recent changes may be impacting the rights of educators in the classroom.

Since the DMCA went into effect in 1998, it has been deemed illegal to “rip” excerpts from copyright protected DVDs for any educational purpose. (Stansburry, New) “Ripping” excerpts from DVDs pertains to removing small segments of digital media from the DVD and either using or storing the removed data. Various software programs have since been developed to aide in this process, but are not deemed legal to be used on copyright protected material.

Recently a group, the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), created a petition aimed at allowing educators the ability to use copyrighted material in the classroom—with or without permission or payment. It is still an ongoing effort, but recently the use of copyright protected material at the University level for both media and childhood students/educators has been granted an exception to the DMCA. While it is still illegal for any non-media/childhood university level student or educator to use copyrighted digital media without permission, it is still a step forward to being able to use copyrighted material freely in any classroom in the United States.

Unfortunately to this date, it is still illegal for any K-12 educators or students to use copyrighted digital media without first purchasing or receiving permission to use the data from its creator.

For a video and more detailed information on what may or may not be done with the new addition to the DMCA and a video on the subject visit America University’s Center for Social Media at http://centerforsocialmedia.org/fair-use/related-materials/codes/code-best-practices-fair-use-media-literacy-education

For more information on the NCTE and their efforts in creating an exception to the DMCA, visit their website at http://www.ncte.org/positions/statements/fairusemedialiteracy

An article in Newswise by American University goes in depth into the new ability of media and or education professors/students  to claim “fair-use” on copyrighted materials: http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/546107/

For the full information on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act please visit the online documentation at http://www.copyright.gov/onlinesp/.

If you would like an abbreviated version of the DMCA which includes a brief synopsis and what it means to the average digital media user, please see the summary provided by UCLA here (insert link: http://gseis.ucla.edu/iclp/dmca1.htm)

Even though Wikipedia is an open-source online resource, the current page for the DMCA still contains quite a bit of good information and links to important issues pertaining to the Digital Millennium Copyright ACT. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Millennium_Copyright_Act

Resources:

     Stansbury, Meris. “New Copyright ruling affects educators.” eCampus News. Accessed Aug. 15, 2010. http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/new-copyright-law-affects-educators/2/

Author of the article is Jarrod M. Feight