Andi Sibley's List: copyright

• The voluntary guidelines allow teachers to make a single recording of a student performance of copyrighted material for educational or archival purposes. Similarly, you can make a single copy of an aural exercise or test. Beyond that, a license is required. This part is simple. If the piece already has been legally distributed, the copyright owner is required to license it to anyone who wants to record it.

• Most performances of copyrighted songs require a license from ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC (depending on which performing rights organization the writer has joined). However, Section 110 provides that “face-to-face” teaching exemption. “Performing a song live to demonstrate technique during a music class or playing a song on CD as part of a music history class, for example, would fall under this exception,” says Sam Mosenkis, vice president of legal affairs for ASCAP.

   

  When it comes to performances of longer “dramatico-musical” works—an opera, ballet, or musical, for example—it is generally necessary to license the full work from the publisher or one of several licensing agencies, such as Tams-Witmark Music Library or Rodgers & Hammerstein Library.

• Do I need a music license from ASCAP or BMI to hold a piano recital for my  students?
  One of the rights held by a copyright owner of a musical work  is the exclusive right to perform the work in public. If music is performed in a  public place or if music is transmitted to the public via radio, television,  music on hold, or by the Internet, it may only be done with the permission of  the copyright holder.
• However, when a videotape or audiotape is made of the performance, the music is  now not only being performed, but also copied. The taping of the music raises  the question as to whether permission of the copyright holder is required since  the musical work is being copied.
  It has been recognized that a music  instructor may make a single copy of a recording of performances by students for  the purpose of evaluation or rehearsal. That copy may be retained by the  teacher. However, no more than a single copy may be made and retained. If  multiple copies of the performance are made, the permission of the copyright  holder would be required.
  
  

• May parents videotape their children’s piano recital without a  license?
  Yes, as long as the videotaping is done for private purposes  only and is not distributed outside of the immediate family. If a parent were to  make copies of the videotape and attempt to sell or distribute them beyond the  immediate family, there could be a copyright violation.

  
  
• However, if the music being played is covered by a copyright, then the posting  on YouTube without the copyright holder’s permission constitutes an infringement  of the copyright holder’s synchronization and broadcasting rights.
  With the  tremendous growth of YouTube and the posting of numerous amateur videos  containing commercial music, YouTube has already faced the infringement  issue.  Several music publishers have written cease and desist letters to  YouTube and to amateurs posting videos to YouTube.  Currently, if YouTube  receives such a letter, it will remove the video upon the request of the  copyright holder. 
  
• However, if it is covered by copyright and played without the permission of the  copyright holder, there are infringements of the synchronization and  broadcasting rights.
  

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• A common complication comes up when, in addition to recording music as part of  the learning process, music educators may occasionally wish to record student  performances and distribute copies of the recording within the community. Here,  the teacher needs a license to do so,
• It should be emphasized that a performance of a dramatico-musical work—an opera,  a ballet, a musical comedy, etc.—is customarily licensed by the copyright owner  of the performing right or his agent.
• The Face-to-Face Exemption: To qualify for this exemption, the  performance must be initiated by instructors or pupils and must occur within the  context of the "face-to-face teaching activities" of a nonprofit educational  institution, in a classroom or similar place devoted to instruction (e.g., a  library, studio or workshop).

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• Performing a work, whether a play script or musical score, is prohibited without  receiving permission from the copyright holder, and in most cases paying a  licensing fee and/or royalties.
• “Performance” is defined rather broadly and can be taken to mean a classroom as  well as a theater or other performance space, so even if you are using the music  for a classroom performance that is not “open to the public,” it is necessary to  obtain written permission and probably pay a fee to use the music.

• In general, personal recordings of your child acting or singing taken with  your video camera are fine, but if a school wants to make an official recording  of a play or performance and show it on say, the local cable channel, then  permission must be requested and granted. 
• Works published on or before January 1, 1923 are considered to be in the public  domain.
• The bottom line is that if you are not sure whether the song, play script, or  anything else is protected by copyright, it pays to find out. With fines for  copyright infringement ranging from $500 to $100,000 or more, copyright  infringement is serious business and should not be taken lightly by anyone

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• rather than operating an economy based on presumptions of scarcity, we need to  build economies based on presumptions of abundance.

• According to the study by American University’s Center for Social Media,  educators often “over-comply with copyright law, and even forego using  legitimate teaching tools and techniques for fear of violating copyright.”
• We need to let our students and colleagues know that it’s perfectly legal to use  copyrighted materials in research, if they’re properly cited and supplement,  rather than supplant, one’s own work.
• fair use, a provision that allows educators to use copyrighted materials under  certain conditions without seeking permission from the rights holder. According  to the Copyright Act of 1976, educators are sometimes allowed to use copyrighted  materials “for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching  (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research….”
• Educators also need to know that students can use copyrighted materials for  school projects and in their professional portfolios.
• Yet as a researcher and teacher, one has the right to do all of these expressly  forbidden things provided that fair-use guidelines are followed
• “There’s never been a lawsuit involving a media company and an educator over the  rights to use media as part of the educational process.”

• The library media specialist’s role is to help each teacher and student  establish an informed, personal level of comfort in using others’ intellectual  properties.
• My longstanding philosophy is that education is about teaching others to think  rather than to believe. We need to help students arrive at their own personal  comfort levels when using protected creative works.
• We must allow the fair use of copyrighted material in student work, but expect  them to be able to articulate why they believe it constitutes fair use.
• Students should be required to assign a Creative Commons designation to each  piece of original work they produce—especially those items they’ll be publishing  online or in print.

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• Traditional education sites feature sets of educational tools pulled together in  one place online—a silo.
• alternative is to label educational objects located all over the Internet with a  set of shared attributes and allow them all to be accessed through a customized  search engine. It's a much more powerful way to do it and opens up a world of  possibilities.
• we're encouraging the creators of open educational materials to label them by  grade level, subject area, language in which the material is written, and so  forth.

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