Activity #6: Case Study

What happened?

A biology and technology teacher teamed up on a project where their students created a virtual zoo. Students were presented with the task of creating a website and display photos and information found on the Internet to create the virtual zoo. The teachers encouraged the use of sites such as Flickr and discussed fair use as it pertains to copyright issues. One of the goals of the project was to educate students on copyright issues and fair use works. The teachers encouraged students to link back to the original site. They also discussed adding value to the work and how that pertains to fair use.

Response to the email from the photographer

            The photographer who was upset that the class had used his photo said that it was not legal or moral to use without his permission. He stated that they were disobeying copyright law and common decency. The photographer believed that it was theft. The technology teacher was not concerned; she believed they were dealing with fair use and had nothing to worry about as far as copyright was concerned. She claimed that her students were adding value and transforming the work, which protects it from copyright infringement. The teacher had her students reflect upon the email, discussing how they added value and transformed his work. Because the photographer posted his photo on Flickr, the teacher felt as though he had a misunderstanding of creative commons and should not have been upset by their use of his work.

My response

Section 107 of the copyright law states the “purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes” should be considered when determining if something is fair use. In the teacher’s defense, her class was using it for nonprofit educational purposes. However, the government does encourage asking the owner for permission. This would have been the perfect opportunity for her to incorporate the lesson on how to ask for permission for her students which is one of the tenets provided by the educator’s guide to copyright and fair use. Instead of reflecting on this after the fact, it would have been a great example of asking for permission and considering the author.

Second, the educator’s guide stated that, when planning to post work that you have not created on your website, you should avoid downloading photographs. It’s difficult to say if the students transformed his work enough to be considered fair use. In the guide, it states that the works must be “altered significantly” to be considered fair use. Simply reposting the photo on a new website does not qualify as significantly altered.

I believe that the teacher should have made her students request permission for the photo before using it on their virtual zoo site. It would have been a great lesson in respecting someone else’s work and on how to obtain permission. I don’t think it was significantly altered enough to be considered fair use. However, if his picture was located on Flickr’s creative commons page, then she was absolutely correct in her assumptions of fair use.