Remixing the First-Year
Composition Classroom
Copyright Lessons and Activities
Copyright Quiz: Beginning the Conversation
Begin class by having students complete a copyright quiz like this or something of your own creation. This may be done on paper or using sites like Poll Everywhere or Kahoot. Copyright quizzes should spark some conversation as to why certain works or laws fall into different parts of copyright. This activity may be done before or after the overall, informative discussion about copyright.
Copyright Spectrum
Below is an infographic of copyright as a spectrum. This may be drawn on the board or passed out as copies. Ask students what they know about copyright and add it to the spectrum as they give details. If the class does not know much about copyright, as is often the case, you may begin by putting the larger categories up and asking questions about each one. This may be the start of your copyright discussion and you may dedicate other class periods to getting into some more specific details about each part of copyright.
Copyright Resources
Media Education Lab University of Rhode Island has great resources for teaching for fair use, especially for media literacy. These include a PowerPoints and complete lesson plans introducing and explaining various aspects of copyright.
The Wiki Copyright page is also a great, in-depth, informational resource for copyright, creative commons, public domain.
Copyright Spectrum
Some Rights Reserved
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Creative Commons
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Spectrum of how much control owner has on the work
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No Rights Reserved
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No law tying it to usage, but attributes makes an ethical dilemma
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People have given up their rights to their work
All Rights Reserved
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Default copyright in USA
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©
Fair Use
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There are four elements that are used to decide if something is under 'fair use'
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Character of Use (where ethics of using a work falls; often where educational use is found)
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Nature of the copyright work
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Amount in relation to the whole
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Effect on market or value
Public Domain
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Copyrights have timed out because they are so old