Thing 10 – Creative Commons
14 10 2008I have to say I’m still a little confused about Creative Commons. I think I understand the freedom it gives us as educators, but I’m still not sure how it is different from fair use. I had never seen the CC logo on any website, and I’m not sure I’ll notice it much. I’m not much of a noticer. I go straight for whatever content I was searching for.
I’m not sure CC will impact students’ work too much, no matter how much we try to educate them on fairness, copyright, artistic rights, etc. This generation has grown up with the idea that if it’s on the web and it doesn’t cost anything, it’s fair game. I read the statement that “citing is not the same as permission” and was a little perplexed. How do we explain to some students, who already don’t see copying something from the web as cheating, that they must both cite a source AND get permission to use it? Sigh.
I do use digital images on my school wiki. I get them from a source for which I bought a year-long subscription. Does that give me the right to use them on an unlimited basis on my wiki and my blogs? I’m embarrassed to say that I’m not sure.
I don’t really claim ownership of the activities and projects that I put out there for students to use and complete. I rarely have something that was completely original anyway. So if others want to borrow things from me, I don’t really mind. I think. I guess I figure that we’re all in this thing together, and any help we can give each other is for the common good.
Negatives for using CC…… the only thing I can think of is that if one uses it exclusively, it might pose limitations? Hmmmm…
Copyright is confusing, to be sure… one important (and reductive) distinction thing regarding fair use versus CC is that fair use essentially gives you permission to use a small percentage of a traditionally copyrighted work to support direct instruction within your classroom. You can’t publish it, or adapt it, or do anything with it that interferes with its owner making money. Creative Commons allows the creator of a work to specify how others may use it, from the moment of its creation — “attribution-only,” for example, means I can use it however I want (like publish it on my webpage, or print it on a t-shirt, or play it as background music for my digital yearbook) as long as I give credit to the creator. Those are all uses that go beyond fair use (and there are many other permutations to be sure).
Regarding how we teach students to make these distinctions and take responsibility for using digital content ethically? It’s definitely tough, since we as educators (me included) don’t fully understand all the rules, but I think we need to start early, revisit often, and learn together!