Busting Common Copyright Myths

Learning Objective

  • This lesson is a great place to start learning about copyright as it introduces students to copyright basics and common copyright myths.

This episode is a fun way to learn about their baseline copyright knowledge. Throughout the podcast, host Sara Benson asks her colleague and friend Gordon Speagle about common copyright myths to see whether he can determine copyright fact from fiction. This assignment could be used in any course where students are just beginning to learn about copyright basics, such as a scholarly communication course, a copyright course, a course on library archives or digitization. 

Assignment

  • Listen to the 13.5 minute episode and play along.
  • After listening to the episode, watch a short 5.5 minute video about copyright basics. 
  • Then, watch a short video on copyright basics and answer a copyright quiz from the United States Copyright Office.

 

Episode available at: http://wordpress.library.illinois.edu/scp/podcast/busting-common-copyright-myths-with-gordon-speagle/

Total homework time: approximately 30 minutes.

During Class

Did you answer all of the questions correctly? If not, what surprised you? What did you learn about copyright law from listening to this episode of ©hat and the copyright basics video. Next, work in small groups to create a drawing together. Show the group drawings to the class. Who owns a copyright on the work? (Hint: the question here is whether the work is original and the likely answer is that yes, the drawing is original and it is jointly owned by all of the authors). For more information on originality, see pages 8-10 of Chapter 300 of the Compendium of the U.S. Copyright Office Practice, available at https://www.copyright.gov/comp3/chap300/ch300-copyrightable-authorship.pdf

Total class time: 30-40 minutes.