Fair Use Case Study - Activity #6

After reviewing the Upper Merion High School case study I found some discrepancies with the project and the responses from the school.

First let's provide the background for this case study. A Biology class was creating a digital zoo through student created web pages. Students were instructed to build their sites using images and content found on the web. The video states that the students weren't supposed to "transform the photos from the way they were presented on the site where they came"--to me, seems like an odd interpretation of Fair Use. The students were also supposed to link back to the site where they came from as well as "add value" with the information relating to the photographs. Before the sites were created, the Biology teacher and the school's Technical Integration mentor discussed copyright and Fair Use with the students. Once the pages were published, and allegedly made public, one of the photographers who felt their images were stolen responded with an email rebuking the school and this project.

The case study video did not indicate whether or not a response email was sent to the photographer, however the mentor stated she believed they were operating within the safe haven of Fair Use because the students were "adding value and transforming the work" so they didn't feel the need to contact the copyright owners. I feel the argument provided in the video was exactly the scenario the Education World article used which described educators making incorrect assumptions about copyright due to it's use for educational purposes.

There are a few things the school, teacher and mentor could have done differently to make them less liable, for copyright violations among other issues. First, I would have focused on informing the students of the Fair Use guidelines created by the Consortium of College and University Media Centers. This would establish a baseline understanding for all the students and the teacher about the content being used for these webpages. Second, I would have highly recommended only using images with Creative Commons' licenses or obtaining written permission from the copyright owner to use a copyrighted work. This would have been a better exercise in respect and proper research methods. Lastly, I would have strongly advised to not make these pages public as that opens the floodgates for all sorts of liability (e.g. students posting inappropriate content and/or copyrighted works). It would have been just as easy for the students to make an internal site through a learning management system or internal web server.