SOPA PIPA and the Classroom Use of Digital Media

Wednesday’s blackouts by companies like Wikipedia and Reddit have raised much needed awareness about the Stop Online Privacy Act and the Protect IP Act. If you would like to do your part to support freedom of speech and prevent internet censorship, please visit americancensorship.org. As the debate continues, let’s take some time to review the current state of digital media in the classroom.

 

The Internet provides access to a vast source of information, some of which ends up in classrooms. Multimedia projects have become a popular addition to classroom assignments. Their use, however, raises questions about the legal and ethical use of images, video, and audio obtained from the Internet. What are the limitations and restrictions to the use of media in the classroom? What are teachers allowed to use for instruction and what are students allowed to use for classroom projects? These questions and their answers need to be considered by teachers to avoid messy copyright violations. 

Teachers can visit the site of the United States Copyright Office to read about the law that should be followed in the use of digital media. Although the site is full of legalese, there are a number of other sites that provide a quick reference chart for classroom use. Teachers should make students aware that not everything on the web is free to copy, download, and use at their discretion. Although education has been given a somewhat greater leniency with regard to the use of copyrighted material through fair use, it is vital that teachers know what those limitations are. 

Teachers should encourage students to search and utilize media that is within the public domain or with creative commons licenses that provide freedom of use explicitly stated by the author. The exploration, ideas, and creativity of students does not need to be stifled by copyright laws, instead they can be redirected and schooled in the ethical use of material originated by others.