THE HOW’S & WHY’S OF TEACHING COPYRIGHT

THE HOW’S & WHY’S OF

TEACHING COPYRIGHT Laura Quilter

MLS, JD University of Massachusetts Amherst

University Libraries

1

WHY TEACH COPYRIGHT?2Laura Quilter, [email protected] - “The Hows & Whys of Teaching Copyright”, © 2020

DOES ANYONE REALLY CARE ABOUT © ?➤ Particularly these days — covid, elections,

economy, climate catastrophes — it seems almost fantastic to me that anyone would care about copyright.

➤ Yet the numbers tell us they do:

➤ I have had hundreds of individual people reach out to me over the past eight years, with questions about copyright, publishing contracts, permissions, the public domain, fair use, distributing their work, and related issues.

➤ Not just academic authors: All kinds of creators & users: local authors & researchers, musicians in bands, artists, software developers, folks making videos…

WHY TEACH COPYRIGHT?

3Laura Quilter, [email protected] - “The Hows & Whys of Teaching Copyright”, © 2020

SHEEPISH “GO TO JAIL” ➤ But also — there’s a lot of folks who

don’t know yet that they care about copyright.

➤ These are the folks who say: “I’m probably doing things wrong & could go to jail!” which is just a way of saying, “I think copyright is a lot of technicalities that ultimately doesn’t matter.”

➤ Those of us who teach copyright know that it’s both important and exciting—we just need to communicate that to other people!



EVERYONE HAS SKIN IN THE © GAME➤ Until you are out there, you have no idea

how much un-met need there is for basic information about copyright.

Why so much need?

➤ Everyone is a copyright holder

➤ Practically everything that people might use is copyrighted

➤ Technology has made creating and copying and distributing easy — and that’s all “copyright” activities



WHERE TO FIND (UNMET) © NEED➤ So there is a lot of demand already, waiting to be tapped into. How to assess

this un-met need? Look for these folks in your community / organization:

➤ Individuals doing traditional “creative” occupations. The 102 field checklist:

➤ Writing (including news reporting, blogging, fanfic, essays, scholarship, fiction, memoir; poets; translators)

➤ Software - web developers, coders

➤ Drama & plays — local theater groups

➤ Artists — local artists, local photographers, art teachers, galleries, museums [excellent partners]

➤ Songwriting & song-recording — local musicians, independent music teachers & music schools, choruses, performance groups, & bands; live music venues

➤ Video & motion picture — Local AV clubs, movie theaters, film festivals, screening series. Lots of folks are monetizing video!

➤ Gamers & game designers. People are increasingly monetizing their gaming

➤ Dance, architecture

➤ Don’t look just for “professionals” — consider all the ways that it manifests: Students and teachers, amateurs & community clubs, and “on the job” for businesses, organizations (churches, municipal government, local organizations & clubs)



HOW TO TEACH COPYRIGHT … TO ANYONE


➤ Librarians have highly diverse audiences

➤ Inherent tensions in developing the right instructional posture:

➤ our role as educator, versus role as advocate

➤ need to grab attention but also tell a story of balance

➤ need to create confidence but simply raising awareness can create fear

➤ duality in roles: Every creator is also a user; every user also creates

➤ Teaching is always challenging: To engage and instruct, to establish expertise while instilling confidence

PROBLEMS


➤ finding hooks to connect with the audience

➤ copyright is in common to everyone

➤ analyze the audience

➤ stories

➤ dry facts, isolated from context, are hard to remember, hard to understand, hard to care about

➤ embrace the complexity

SOLUTIONS

REMEMBER:

➤ Everyone is a copyright holder

➤ Practically everything is copyrighted

➤ Technology has made creating and copying and distributing easy — all “copyright” activities

➤ AND most people don’t know much about copyright. They are blank slates ready for you to inscribe your enthusiasm!


➤ What type of works do they create or use? How do they use them, and why?

➤ This automatically generates many interesting anecdotes & stories!

➤ Ideally you can get a little of this information in advance, by targeting or asking in sign-up info.

➤ What career stage, age, or “professional” use are they?

SOLUTIONS

analyzing the audience


➤ What type of works do they create or use? How do they use them, and why?

➤ What career stage, age, or “professional” use are they?

➤ Businesses & professional creatives are interested in avoiding hassle & liability! Plagiarism scandals might appeal. And the business side of the arts.

➤ Students might be interested in creativity, or particular famous artists!

➤ Teachers care about famous artists too (they want to hook their own students) as well as mechanics & practical aspects.

➤ Ordinary people arranging their weddings, their grandparents’ papers, their kids’ videos, their own passion hobby.

SOLUTIONS



➤ roles and stages

➤ creator? distributor? licensor? compiler?

➤ career stage: youth, undergrads, early career, mid-career, late career

➤ practitioners versus non-practitioners

➤ amateurs versus professional, and the gray area in-between

SOLUTIONS





➤ finding hooks to connect with the audience

➤ copyright is in common to everyone

➤ analyze the audience

➤ stories

➤ dry facts, isolated from context, are hard to remember, hard to understand, hard to care about

➤ embrace the complexity

SOLUTIONS

"The universe is made of stories, not of atoms.”

Muriel Rukeyser, “The Speed of Darkness”


embrace the complexity


➤ copyright anecdotes to shock the conscience — using moral outrage to grab attention

➤ academic research & open access: Diego Gomez

➤ scholarly content for teaching: GSU, Pearson art history textbook, open education & textbook costs

➤ outrageous damages & music filesharing: Jammie Thomas

➤ copyright takedowns as censorship: Diebold v. OPG

➤ overly narrow permission requests: “Eyes on the Prize”

➤ outrageous publishing agreements: Alan Dean Foster & Disney, Village People’s Victor Willis & “YMCA”

➤ WARNING: Be careful to not leave your audience with this — every shocking story has a response, or an action, and you want them to know that, too! Otherwise the result is more fear.

QUICK HOOKS

SHOCK!!! HORROR!! OUTRAGE!!!

REMEMBER:

➤ These are STORIES so they are inherently more interesting.

➤ You can use them to bring home FACTS you want people to know (for instance, “Sherlock Holmes” and character copyright) as well as catch the interest.


➤ YouTube channel management (& coming soon: twitch)

➤ Creative Commons - how to find & use content, and how to share your own content

➤ contract & licensing negotiation

QUICK HOOKS

topics of universal interest!


BREAK THE ICE QUESTIONS:

➤ How many of you are copyright holders?

➤ How long does copyright last?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

➤ What kinds of things are covered by copyright?

➤ (depending on audience) How have you experienced copyright? (movie screens, youtube takedowns…)

LONGER EXERCISES:

➤ list of hypotheticals for issue-spotting

➤ analyzing contract or contract clauses

➤ role-play a case

interactivity

EXERCISES


REMEMBER!➤ Remember! You don’t have to teach them everything.

In fact, you *can’t* teach them everything. I studied copyright in multiple classes over three years in law school and still had barely scratched the surface.

➤ Most people don’t need nearly that much — so what do they need? They need to know that they need to know — and they need to know how to find out.

➤ So, your goal is always to give your students:

➤ (1) something useful — that’s the substance! and it gives them something even more important:

➤ (2) a sense of interest & curiosity — that there is something important for them to know; and, just as important,

➤ (3) the feeling that they can explore & they know how & where ….


➤ Copyright instruction is a natural fit for libraries — all libraries! public and academic, even k12 and special

➤ Yes, we have challenges: Challenges of audience diversity, types of students … and the challenge of copyright instruction seeming boring. We can meet these challenges and get audience & get their attention by carefully analyzing the audience (even on the fly if you have to) to know what will catch their interest!

➤ Once invested, then engage them with scenarios — stories about how & why the balance matters — and interactive exercises.

TAKE HOME 20Laura Quilter, [email protected] - “The Hows & Whys of Teaching Copyright”, © 2020

QUESTIONS?21Laura Quilter, [email protected] - “The Hows & Whys of Teaching Copyright”, © 2020

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THE HOW’S & WHY’S OF TEACHING COPYRIGHT