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Creative? How Can We Protect Our Ideas?

Author: Tasha Russell

School/Organization:

Wagner Middle School

Year: 2021

Seminar: Listening to the Music of Contemporary Africa: History, Politics, and Human Origins

Grade Level: 6-8

Keywords: copyright, fair use, Fela, infringement, public domain, Solomon Linda, the Tokens

School Subject(s): Computer Science, Technology

The purpose of the unit is for students to learn about their rights to their own copywritten work, identify how they can use copyrighted work without permission through public domain and fair use, and understand that piracy and plagiarism are forms of copyright infringement. These are common practices that are unethical and unlawful. (Taken from common sense lesson on  copyright https://tinyurl.com/vsxdp368). The unit will be taught using various materials that analyze, compare, and synthesize ways that music has been misappropriated through the music of Fela, the Tokens, Solomon Linda, and current hip hop artists. At the end of this unit, students will be able to understand the importance of properly using copyrighted work as a creative person. The students will work through various activities that will help them to write an essay defending the reasons why it is important to obtain permission for the use of someone’s work.

Download Unit: Russell-Tasha.pdf

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Full Unit Text
Content Objectives

Overview

The content of this unit will focus on broadening middle school students’ knowledge on intellectual property, copyright, public domain and fair use as it relates hip hop music’s use of Afrobeat music in its production. Afrobeat provides a good case study because it is an African popular music style that has been incorporated into the music making of several big name artists in the United States, sometimes with significant legal implications Technology changes daily and more people are using technology to be creative. The current state of internet technology is called Web 2.0. Web 2.0, a term coined by Tim O’Reilly and Dale Dougherty, is where content on the Internet is participatory, meaning that users are able to create content without being an expert in the field and where the information is published. Copyright is important because participants who share information on a website become a part of the creative works and may be entitled to certain rights as content creators. Students need to be aware when they post assignments that include video, music, and art and begin to share their work that they are subject to the legal and ethical standards of copyright, fair use, and public domain. In the day and age of “free culture” where people are sharing and creating media freely without permission from the creator it is important to understand the legalities of sharing creative work that often crosses the lines without the creator even knowing.  Our case study focuses on the controversial use of West African Afrobeat and how he was sampled (specifically created by Nigerian musician Fela Anikulapo Kuti) in contemporary hip hop.

Rationale

According to the distance education school the University of the People, if we practice critical thinking skills with our students, we will allow them to solve  problems as well as devise and create new ideas to challenges experienced within creative works. As educators, we want to create students who are able to be creative in solving issues. As new issues arise and as we create project- based curricula that involve new technologies like Web 2.0. with our students, it is important to help students understand the rights and responsibilities of one who creates and those who use the creative work of others.

Creativity is important to the future of the Internet. For students to maintain and understand the relationship between creativity and the Internet they must understand copyright and all the legal ramifications that are related to it. The intention of this curriculum unit is to help middle students in the Philadelphia School District understand that if they create a piece of work, they also need to protect their work. This is particularly true in situations of racial inequality.  For example, there is widespread appropriation of TikTok dances that originated within the Black community, which are used in videos made by non-black Tik Tok “creators”. According to Lockhart, an journalism undergraduate writing her thesis on entertainment, the world wide web makes it easier to replicate and share someone else’s work, and we need to remember that such replication often occurs in situations of racial inequality in which many Caucasians will regularly copy and imitate the styles and culture of Black people without giving them credit for their creative work.

Lockhart further explains that Causcasians will “sometimes completely plagiarize the work and take credit for it” (Lockhart, 2021, p. 9). Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines plagiarism as the act of stealing or passing off (the ideas or words of another) as one’s own or using another’s production without creating a source. Lockhart states that the Caucasian creator tries to give credit in the Tik Tok video by using a side by side with the original creator to create some sort of credit to the original creator. Tik Tok imitators  receive compensation  while the Tik Tok originators gain nothing in return, but stolen royalties.

Copyright infringement occurs often in music as well. Copyright infringement “occurs when a copyrighted work is reproduced, distributed, performed, publicly displayed, or made into a derivative work without the permission of the copyright owner” (https://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-definitions.html). Another example of creative work that the artist did not ask for permission to use is in the song, “Blurred Lines”,  sung by Robin Thicke,  Pharrell Williams, and the rapper, TI.  According to Alleyne, in 2013, the Marvin Gaye estate sued Thicke, Williams, and TI for using a substantial part of Marvin Gayes’ song, “Got to Give it Up, Part 1”. After a two year court battle, Thicke was found liable for copyright infringement and had to pay the Marvin Gaye estate 7.3 million in profits and damages.

Introduction

Wagner Middle School is located in the West Oak Lane section of Philadelphia and serves over 500 children in 6th through 8th grade. All of the students attending are economically disadvantaged. The racial makeup of this school is: eighty-nine percent students are African American, four percent are Hispanic/Latino, one percent are Caucasian, and six percent are Multi-Racial/other. The school participates in project-based learning and most of their learning activity involves posting work that uses music, art, and videos and is shared over the internet.  The issues raised in this curriculum unit are particularly important in our school though students everywhere are creating content and confronting these issues every single day.

Problem Statement

Elementary and middle school  students enjoy creating TikToks™ and do not understand that they need to protect their work and ideas. This unit seeks to help students understand that as a creator, one needs to understand their work and ideas could go viral. They also need to know what are the ways as a creator protects their work and ideas to receive compensation as well as not lose out on royalties. Each marking period in the technology program, middle school students learn about copyright, fair use, and public domain. Every marking period there is a new set of students. Each period in person is about seventy minutes long. This unit will be taught over a two-week period. The purpose of the unit is for students to learn about their rights to their own copywritten work, identify how they can use copyrighted work without permission through public domain and fair use, and understand that piracy and plagiarism are forms of copyright infringement. These are common practices that are unethical and unlawful. (Taken from common sense lesson on  copyright https://tinyurl.com/vsxdp368)

Vocabulary

Copyright-the exclusive legal right, given to an originator or an assignee to print, publish, perform, film, or record literary, artistic, or musical material, and to authorize others to do the same.: “he issued a writ for breach of copyright” “works whose copyrights had lapsed”

Creative Commons– Creative Commons licenses give everyone from individual creators to large institutions a standardized way to grant the public permission to use their creative work under copyright law. From the reuser’s perspective, the presence of a Creative Commons license on a copyrighted work answers the question, “What can I do with this work?

Public Domain the state of belonging or being available to the public as a whole, and therefore not subject to copyright.: “the photograph had been in the public domain for 15 years” “public-domain software”.

Fair Use (in US copyright law) the doctrine that brief excerpts of copyright material may, under certain circumstances, be quoted verbatim for purposes such as criticism, news reporting, teaching, and research, without the need for permission from or payment to the copyright holder.: “whether or not six seconds of the song in a user-generated video constitutes fair use is something for a court to decide”.

Web 2.0 is the second stage of development of the World Wide Web, characterized especially by the change from static web pages to dynamic or user-generated content and the growth of social media.

Creative Works are a manifestation of creative effort such as artwork, literature, music, paintings, and software. Creative works have in common a degree of arbitrariness, such that it is improbable that two people would independently create the same work. Creative works are part of property rights. The term is frequently used in the context of copyright law.

Digital Literacy is the ability to effectively and critically navigate, evaluate and create information using a range of digital technologies. It requires one “to recognize and use that power, to manipulate and transform digital media, to distribute pervasively, and to easily adapt them to new forms”. Digital literacy does not replace traditional forms of literacy. It builds upon the foundation of traditional forms of literacy. Digital literacy is the marrying of the two terms digital and literacy; however, it is much more than a combination of the two terms. Digital information is a symbolic representation of data, and literacy refers to the ability to read for knowledge, write coherently, and think critically about the written word. Digital literacy researchers explore a wide variety of topics, including how people find, use, summarize, evaluate, create, and communicate information while using digital technologies. Research also encompasses a variety of hardware platforms, such as computer hardware, cell phones and other mobile devices and software or applications, including web search or Internet applications more broadly. As a result, the area is concerned with much more than how people learn to use computers. In Scandinavian English as well as in OECD research, the term Digital Competence is preferred over literacy due to its holistic use.

Intellectual Property is  a work or invention that is the result of creativity, such as a manuscript or a design, to which one has rights and for which one may apply for a patent, copyright, trademark, etc.

Documentation is the process of classifying and annotating texts, photographs, etc.: “she arranged the collection and documentation of photographs”.

Logo is a symbol or other design adopted by an organization to identify its products, uniform, vehicles, etc.: “the Olympic logo was emblazoned across their jackets”.

To Paraphrase is to express the meaning of (the writer or speaker or something written or spoken) using different words, especially to achieve greater clarity.: “you can either quote or paraphrase literary texts”

Patent Plagiarism Defenders of patents commonly say they are against innovators’ ideas being “stolen” or “plagiarized.” This implies that patents simply permit an innovator to sue those who copy his idea. This position betrays either disingenuity or ignorance about patent law of Nov 21, 2009

Piracy is the unauthorized use or reproduction of another’s work.

Remix or Mashup Remix is taking a song and adding your changes to it. … A mashup would be two different tracks mixed into one song. For example you grab the vocals from one track and mix it with a beat from a different track.

Trademark is a symbol, word, or words legally registered or established by use as representing a company or product.

Content Objectives

Students will be able to do the following:

  • Define key terminology
  • Analyze how songs in Hip hop were sampled, remixed, or mashed up from Afrobeats
  • Learn how to select, assess, and consume information in a digital world.

Classroom Activities

Day One:

Present a PowerPoint with the 18 vocabulary words and definitions. Students would be presented with a scenario and match the term.

Day Two:

Ask: Imagine that you and some friends created a short stop-motion animated film. You wrote clever dialogue, designed the shots, and worked on the footage on the weekends. You post the video on YouTube, and people love it! One day, you see your film uploaded on someone’s website. They wrote the caption, “Look at this cool stop-motion video!” But there is no mention of your name or your friends’ names, and it’s not linked to YouTube. How would you feel if something you had worked hard to create was being shared by other people without your name attached to it?

Invite volunteers to share their thoughts. Help students connect their feelings to a shared definition of fairness: that when you work hard on something you create, you deserve credit for it. Emphasize that:

  • It’s unfair but also illegal to use other people’s copyrighted writing, music, pictures, videos, or artwork without permission or citing them.
  • There are laws in place in the United States that protect your creative work — check the Constitution for the Copyright Clause.

Distribute the Fair and Square Handout (worksheet 2).

Show students the Understanding Copyright, Public Domain, and Fair Use video on Slide 4 (2:41) and then have them complete Part 1 of the handout.

Slide show https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1jgtgIMX8wryWHoQQp4-9N4MfTndHJEX29C-fVDUhh7Q/edit#slide=id.g4d3cc272cc_0_0

After watching, review the correct responses to Part 1 using the Teacher Version. If time allows, project Slide 5 and ask students additional questions to check for understanding of the video:

  • What is copyright infringement? What can it result in?
  • How are works in the public domain different from copyrighted works?
  • Why is determining fair use “tricky”?

Summarize by explaining that if you want to use copyrighted work (images, text, video, music, etc.), you either have to get permission from the  author or be able to claim fair use.

Day Three:

Continue working on the Fair and Square Worksheet

  1. Project Slide 6 and say: Next we’re going to learn more about fair use. When determining whether something is fair use, you can ask yourself: Is it fair … and square? We’re going to look at the Four Factors of Fair Use, which are in a square to help you remember.
  2. Project Slide 7 and read aloud each of the descriptions for the Four Factors of Fair Use. As you read them aloud, students should fill in the blanks in their notes in Part 2 of the Fair and Square Student Handout.
  3. As needed, provide examples for each factor as you go through them:
  • Purpose: You are inspired by Marvel’s comic superhero Black Panther. You draw your own original version of the character and use it to make a T-shirt. This is likely fair use. If you copy the original Black Panther image onto a T-shirt and try to sell the T-shirts, that is not fair use and would be a copyright infringement.
  • Nature: If you are writing a research paper and want to use a quote from an article or book to support your ideas, this is fair use. You need to provide a citation for the author/work. Using informational works such as news, magazines, scholarly books, and articles is a better case for fair use because it encourages the spread of ideas and benefits the public.
  • Amount: If you are creating a video for a school project, and a documentary by National Geographic supports your ideas, you can argue fair use by using a short clip from the movie. And because it’s for school, you have a more compelling argument for fair use.
  • Effect: Copying a still image from a movie and making it into a meme as a parody or commentary is typically an argument for fair use. The meme would likely not have a negative effect on the sales or performance of the movie. (In this case, the meme uses a small amount of the original work, is used for noncommercial purposes, and is transforming the original work into something different.)
  1. Project Slide 8 and read aloud the four common examples of fair use. Have students capture the four examples on their handouts.
  2. Say: Next, we’re going to play a little game. Project Slide 9 and read the directions aloud.Project Slide 10 and have a student read aloud the example. After one minute, ask students to give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down and call on two people to briefly explain their thinking. Prompt students to refer back to the Four Factors of Fair Use and ask: Is it fair … and square?

Explain that this example probably isn’t fair use because although Maya is only using part of the logo, it’s for advertising and she plans to make a profit. That is less of an argument for fair use.

  1. Repeat Step 4 for Slides 11–13. Use the answers below, but keep in mind that there’s not a formula or clear-cut right or wrong answer for fair use.
  • Example No. 2: Not fair use. Students are using the song for mood but not transforming or reworking the song in any way.
  • Example No. 3: Most likely fair use. Eva is critiquing and commenting on unrealistic expectations about appearance that some magazines promote. It could even be thought of as a parody.
  • Example No. 4: No, it is not fair use. But it is OK to use it in this example because the image is part of the public domain. This means creators can use it however they want. According to U.S. copyright law, there is a certain amount of time after an author’s death when their works enter the public domain. Or authors can decide to have their works be public domain and freely used by others. Documents and works of the United States government also are in the public domain.
  1. Summarize for students by saying: Now you know about copyright, fair use, and public domain. You applied the Four Factors of Fair Use to some examples. Next, we’re going to explore an even more tricky example: music sampling.

Note: This section includes a music video by DJ Earworm (https://youtu.be/PvWC7V3gGts), which is composed of clips from other popular music videos. Review this video in its entirety before showing it to students. If you are comfortable sharing only a segment of the video, feel free to do so. 

Day Four:

Continue with the Factors of Fair Use Worksheet

  1. Ask: Have you ever heard a song with a sample in it? Have students respond with the song and, if possible, the original song that was sampled.
  2. Define sampling as reworking a portion of a song or sound recording into a new composition. (Slide 14) Note that sampling is a foundation for hip-hop music in which drum breaks or other sounds are sampled, looped, and rapped to. Explain that musicians often get permission from the original artist before they sample, or they use samples in the public domain … but not always.
  3. Ask: Do you think sampling qualifies as an example of fair use? Invite students to respond. Help students connect their ideas to the Four Factors of Fair Use: purpose, nature, amount, and effect. Explain that, as with any creative work that involves fair use, it depends on the situation.
  4.  Project Slide 15 and say: Let’s look at one example of sampling to see whether we think it qualifies as fair use. Read the bullet points aloud and explain that students will watch the video and then work in pairs or groups to complete the graphic in Part 3 of their Fair and Square Student Handout. Show DJ Earworm – Summermash 2020 video.
  1. Project Slide 16 and read the questions aloud to support students in completing Part 3 of their handouts. Call on groups to share their Final Decision responses. Use the Teacher Version for guidance. (For fun, you can play judge and actually make a call as to whether or not you believe it’s fair use.) Explain that there are valid arguments on both sides. Highlight that one compelling argument for fair use is that sampling is a form of collage, which is a piece of artwork made by piecing together different materials, including photos, images, or other artwork. (Slide 17)

Day Four:

Write an essay about how it is unfair for someone to steal your work and what could be done to protect your creative rights? Complete the Writing Process.

Stages of the Writing Process

  1. Prewriting: This is the planning phase of the writing process, when students brainstorm, research, gather and outline ideas, often using diagrams for mapping out their thoughts. Audience and purpose should be considered at this point, and for the older students, a working thesis statement needs to be started.
  2. Drafting: Students create their initial composition by writing down all their ideas in an organized way to convey a particular idea or present an argument. Audience and purpose need to be finalized.
  3. Revising: Students review, modify, and reorganize their work by rearranging, adding, or deleting content, and by making the tone, style, and content appropriate for the intended audience. The goal of this phase of the writing process is to improve the draft.
  4. Editing: At this point in the writing process, writers proofread and correct errors in grammar and mechanics, and edit to improve style and clarity. Having another writer’s feedback in this stage is helpful.
  5. Publishing: In this last step of the writing process, the final writing is shared with the group. Sharing can be accomplished in a variety of ways, and with the help of computers, it can even be printed or published online.

Taken from https://www.time4writing.com/writing-resources/writing-process/

Day Five:

Hand out the “Fair Use Guidelines” sheet. (Worksheet 3)  Discuss the four questions on the worksheets to determine fair use and the limits of fair use Divide class into groups of four Give each group a “Fair Use Scenario” and give them time to discuss it Pass out “You Be the Judge” handout (Worksheet 4)

Day Six:

Who is Fela?

Students will view a documentary on Fela Kuti and complete See, Think, and Wonder

Complete Worksheet 5 (See, Think, and Wonder)

Respond to the following questions:

  1. Did you learn anything from this movie? If you did, what was it?
  2. What is the message of this movie? Do you agree or disagree with it?
  3. Was there something you didn’t understand about the film? What was that?
  4. What did you like best about the movie? Why?
  5. What did you like least about the film? Why?

Day Seven:

What is Afrobeat?

Students will define Afrobeat: urban popular music originating in Nigeria in the late 1960s that emphasizes percussion rhythms and features elements of jazz and funk and lyrics which are often strongly political

Students will listen to the song Opposite People by Fela Kuti and understand how his music became the theme for the Black Power Movement with the Black Panthers and Pan Africanism.

Students will complete the following listening activity:

  1. Describe the music that you hear. The students must use one single word for what they hear
  2. The teacher writes all of the descriptive words on the board. As a group, the class will put the words into categories related to the rhythm, the melody, the tempo, the instrumentation, and so on.
  3. Play the song again
  4.  Encourage them to identify visual elements in the music notation that they already noticed by listening.
  5. By the end of the lesson, the students will be able to listen carefully and describe music creatively.
  6. Extension: Students can create a rap and a performance

Day Eight:

Have students review songs that have been sampled on Who’s Sampled? Fela Songs and identify the name of the artist and song who sampled Fela Kuti. Complete Worksheet 5.

Day Nine:

Motivation: Introduce the song: In the Jungle

Discuss the song, “In the Jungle” from the Lion King by asking students if they have heard the song before, and if they remember where they learned it.

Students will read the article, In the Jungle: Inside the Long, Hidden Genealogy of ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’, in small groups. Each group will focus on answering one of the following questions:

  1. What fact(s) did you enjoy learning about the most?
  2. Of the information you learned, which would you like to share with someone else?  Would you like to read more articles about this topic? Why?
  3. What else would you like to learn about this topic?
  4.  What kind of research do you think the author had to do to write this article?
  5. What questions would you ask the writer if you ever had the opportunity to meet him/her?  How can you learn more about this topic?
  6. Would the song be different if it had been written 10 years ago?
  7. Did you discover anything that may help you outside of school?

Day Ten:

Listen to the original song by Solomon Linda and the Original Evening Birds that traveled to the United States. Then compare the next three songs.

Discussion:

  1. Ask the students if this song sounds familiar
  2. What parts stand out most, and why?
  3. Does this melody evoke certain emotions or images?

Read/ Analyze: Students can read the following article to understand who Solomon Linda was and the connection between Solomon’s song and Disney’s Lion King: https://decolonizingthemusicroom.com/in-practice/f/mbube-a-lions-tale

Students will listen, compare, and contrast the following on the Venn Diagram:

A: In the Jungle,  the Mighty Jungle

B: The Tokens- The Lion Sleeps Tonight

C: Solomon Linda and the Evening Mbube

Appendix

Materials

Worksheet 1

Name ___________________________

Intellectual Property Terms

Copyright

Documentation

Fair use

Intellectual Property

Logo

Paraphrase

Patent Plagiarism

Public domain

Trademark

A law granting authors and creators of original works the exclusive privilege to reproduce, distribute, perform, display or sell their work.
Limited use of copyrighted works, without the permission of the owner, is allowed for criticism and commentary, parody, news reporting, research and classroom instruction.

 

Original creative work, in a tangible form, that can be legally protected by a patent, trademark, or copyright.

 

A design used by an organization on its letterhead, advertising material, and signs as an emblem by which the organization can easily be recognized.

 

Legal document granted by the government, giving an inventor the exclusive right to make, use, and sell an invention for a specified number of years.

 

A symbol, such as a word, number, picture, or design, used by manufacturers or merchants to identify their products and distinguish them from others.

 

The use of your own words to tell what you have read, heard, or seen.

 

To take and use the thoughts, writings, inventions, or creative works of another person and use them as your own.
Citing of sources used when doing research, usually in the form of a bibliography
Works that are not copyrighted and may be used without permission.

Worksheet 2

Directions: Part 1

Match the vocabulary word to the correct definition by drawing a line or writing the correct letter.

        Vocabulary Words         Definitions
  1. Copyright

 

 

  1. Public domain

 

  1. Fair use
Legal protection that creators have over the things
they create
The ability to use copyrighted work without permission, but only in certain ways and specific situations
Creative work that’s not copyrighted and free to use without permission

Directions: Part 2

Fill in the blanks for the Four Factors of Fair Use as your teacher reads them aloud.

… the of the new work

 

is or the original

 

work is into

 

something very different.

 

… the used is Common examples: … the of the
only a small of original work is
the original work or or based on
does not include the fact (rather than creative
of the work. or fictional).

 

… the of the new work does

 

not include any  impact

 

on the creator or the value of the

 

original work (think !).

Directions: Part 3

Use the graphic to analyze whether or not DJ Earworm’s “Turnin’ It Up” mash-up falls under fair use.

Final decision: Does this mash-up qualify as fair use? Why, or why not?

Worksheet 3

Fair Use Copyright Guidelines

Fair Use does not imply that citing the source of the material is not necessary.

Printed Material
Books

Article, Essay, or Story Poems

Illustrations

Not to exceed 10% of whole or 1000 words

One chart, picture, diagram or cartoon

Less than 2,500 words

Complete poems less than 250 words or excerpts

from longer poem not to exceed 250 words

5 images by any one artist or photographer

15 images from collection

Music
Sheet Music Music/Lyrics/Music Video Emergency for a performance 10% of an entire work

10% or 30 seconds, whichever is less

Visual Media
Videotapes/DVDs/Video clips

 

10% or 3 minutes, whichever is less
Television
Broadcast TV (ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS & local stations)

Cable TV (CNN, MTV, HBO….)

 

May be used for instruction

Erase after 45 days unless otherwise stated

May be used with permission

Must include all copyright information on copy

Internet
Images, sound or video files

 

 

May be downloaded for student projects (see restrictions above)
Web Publishing
To publish copyrighted material on the web, (e.g. clip art and video clips), you must receive permission from the owner of the material. Publishing to the web is not covered under the educational Fair Use guidelines; therefore there are different permissions you must receive in writing from the copyright holder.
Email
Email is copyrighted material. It may be paraphrased or brief quotes taken from it as any other print material, though the source must be cited.

Four questions to ask yourself to test for fair use:

What is my purpose for using this? (i.e. education, parody, criticism or commentary) What is the nature of the work?

How much am I going to use?

What effect will my use have on the creator?

Created by Hjordy Wagner on June, 2002. Permission is granted to copy this worksheet in its original form. Information taken from the following website http://www.uwec.edu/admin/copyright/uses/index.html.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Worksheet 5

 

See

What Do You See?

Think

What do you think is going on?

Wonder

What does it make you wonder?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Worksheet 6

You Be the Judge

 

The owner of the local Family Video store supports the school by donating one videotape rental-free to the school every Friday. The video is shown in the auditorium to reward students with perfect attendance that week.

 

Is this fair use?

If not, what could be done to make this legal?

A student building a multimedia art project uses copyrighted images of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings downloaded from the web. He submits this project to a competition honoring classroom work and wins a prize for the school.

 

Is this fair use? Why or why not?

A high school video class produces a student video yearbook that they sell at community events to raise money for school equipment. They use well-known popular music clips. The money all goes to the school and the songs are fully listed in the credits.

 

Is this fair use? Why or why not?

Michael’s father bought a DVD burner for the computer. He used it to back up computer files. However, when playing around with it one day, Michael realized he could copy DVD movies. He decided to make a copy of some of his favorite movies to give to his friends.

Is this fair use? Why or why not?

Joshua is the newspaper editor for the high school’s newspaper. He has a problem this week. He has a blank spot on the front page where there should be a cartoon. The person who was supposed to do it was sick. He decides to copy one out of the Sunday newspaper that talks about school. He puts it in the school newspaper and all 2500 students see the comic strip.

Is this fair use?

If not, what could be done to make this legal?

Jamie is short a sheet of music for a particular selection for the next concert. Her teacher said she could make a copy so she would have a chance to practice for the concert in three weeks.

 

Is this fair use? Why or why not?

Mrs. LaBarbera created a PowerPoint titled Intellectual Property. The PowerPoint included short sound clips and pictures from the internet. She included a bibliography that documented the information and clips used. She decided to put it on the district website so that other media specialists could have access to it.

Is this fair use? Why or why not? A teacher rents Gone With the Wind to show the burning of the Atlanta scene to her class while studying the Civil War.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Worksheet 7

Directions: Visit https://www.whosampled.com/Fela-Kuti/ and list an artist who sampled Fela Kuti in their song. Name the song and the artist

 

 

Fela Kuti Song Artist Name/Song (New Song Sampled)
Water, Get No Enemy
Gentleman
Sorrow Tears and Blood
Colonial Mentality
Fear Not For Man

 

 

Visit https://www.okayafrica.com/fela-kuti-afrobeat-hip-hop-samples/ and list the artist who sampled Fela Kuti. Name the song and artist

 

 

Fela Kuti Song Artist Name/Song (New Song Sampled)
Gentleman
I will not apologize
Na poi
Colonial Mentality

 

Resources

3 Fun Music Games & Activities for Middle School

https://solfeg.io/music-games-activities-middle-school/

About CC Licenses

https://creativecommons.org/about/cclicenses/

Alleyne, M., (2019). A history of the “blurred lines” case: Copyright infringement in the music industry. In SAGE Business Cases. SAGE Publications, Ltd., https://www-doi-org.proxy.library.upenn.edu/10.4135/9781526483621

Africa (West, Central and South — digital only), by All Around This World

https://allaroundthisworld.bandcamp.com/album/all-around-this-world-africa-west-central-and-south-digital-only

Copyright in the Classroom https://libguides.geneseo.edu/c.php?g=67346&p=2807678

Definitions

https://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-definitions.html

Definitions for creative workcre·ative work

https://www.definitions.net/definition/creative+work

Discussion Questions for Use with Any Film that is a work of Fiction https://teachwithmovies.org/discussion-questions-for-use-with-any-film-that-is-a-work-of-fiction/

DJ Earworm Mashup – United State of Pop 2020 (Something to Believe In)

https://youtu.be/PvWC7V3gGts

Leroy, V. D. (n.d.). Mbube: A Lion’s Tale. Decolonizing the Music Room. https://decolonizingthemusicroom.com/in-practice/f/mbube-a-lions-tale.

Lockhart, Amirah, “A Stolen Culture: The Harmful Effects of Cultural Appropriation” (2021).

Plagiarizing

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plagiarizing

The Four Factors of Fair Use

https://www.commonsense.org/education/digital-citizenship/lesson/the-four-factors-of-fair-use

The Writing Process: Steps to Writing Success

https://www.time4writing.com/writing-resources/writing-process/

Questions for Reading NonFiction. https://www.hcpss.org/f/parents/tips_readingnonfiction.pdf. (n.d.).

University of the People https://www.uopeople.edu/blog/why-is-critical-thinking-important/#:~:text=4.,ideas%20and%20adjust%20them%20accordingly.

What is Web 2.0? https://www.oreilly.com/pub/a/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html

Who Sampled Fela Kuti

Timeless: Ten Tracks You didn’t Know Sampled Fela Kuti

 

Why Teach Copyright. https://www.copyrightandcreativity.org/why-teach-copyright-2/#:~:text=Copyright%20is%20becoming%20an%20essential,fingertips%20from%20very%20early%20ages.&text=It%20used%20to%20be%20common,they%20do%20much%2C%20much%20more.

Standards

Common Core ELA

L.7.1,L.7.3,L.7.6,RL.7.1,RL.7.2,RL.7.4,SL.7.1,SL.7.1a,SL.7.1b,SL.7.1c,SL.7.1d,SL.7.2,SL.7.4,SL.7.6,W.7.1,W.7.1a,W.7.1b,W.7.4,W.7.5,W.7.9,W.7.10

ISTE

1d,2a,2b,2c,3c,3d,4d,6a,6b,7b