Typical copyright questions include:

• What is "fair use", and to what extent does it allow me to use material on the Web for educational purposes?
• Can I take a copy of a CD-Rom as a back-up?
• Should I put a notice by the photocopier to protect the school from student copyright violations?
• Can I copy today's newspaper articles from a website and turn them into topical activities?
• To what extent do students have copyright in their work?

• What's covered?
• A brief intro to copyright
• Schools, the Internet, and Copyright Law
• Clarity's experience
• Back-up copies
• The issue of plagiarim

A brief intro to copyright

For an overview of the concept of copyright written in clear, straightforward language, read Brad Templeton's A brief intro to copyright.

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Schools, the Internet, and Copyright Law

At Education World, Nancy Willard rightly points out that, "Most reference materials on the subject [of copyright] are so buried in legal gobbledygook and cloaked in ambiguity that it takes a copyright expert to interpret it all." She goes on to interpret it for us with special reference to websites in an article entitled, Schools, the Internet, and Copyright Law.

Two useful features of this article are:

• A template letter to request copyright permission.
• The question of student copyright - an issue routinely ignored by teachers!

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Clarity's experience

Clarity's experience is that copyright holders can be remarkably helpful and accommodating if you contact them and explain that you would like to use their material for educational purposes. Star performers include:

• The Melbourne Age
• The New Straits Times
• The Week

Other publications give complex and frankly unhelpful guidelines on educational use.

Two examples are:

• The BBC (unfortunately) - though they are currently updating their copyright advice, so maybe they discovered that nobody could understand it.
  See: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/copyright/
• The Guardian is highly secretive about its educational use policy and tends to refer you to the syndication department!

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Back-up copies

You probably didn't find the answer to the question about taking back-up copies of a CD-Rom. This depends entirely on the policy of the publisher. In Clarity's case, you may, provided it is purely for back-up purposes. (And should your original CD become corrupted, we will replace it free of charge.) Other publishers have different policies. In conclusion, then, in almost all issues of copyright the golden rule is: if in doubt, ask the copyright holder.

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The issue of plagiarim

Visit www.Shambles.net, a site aimed at the international school community, for a list of resources dedicated to this topic. The first of these argues that time is often better spent designing assignments that minimise the opportunity for plagiarism rather than trying to catch out students who copy.

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