Title: Be Legal and Fair
Course: 21 Things for Students > Section: Be Legal and Fair

Be Legal and Fair

Video hosted on Vimeo and created with http://www.xtranormal.com/

Introduction

Here at mission control we are dealing with a potential crisis. It seems that a lot of artwork, literature, and music by our most creative authors, musicians, and artists have fallen into the hands of pirates. Our artists can no longer support themselves nor feel safe in creating new work. Their work is being shared all over the Internet as we speak. We need to put a stop to this. What would happen if your favorite musicians stopped writing and publishing their music? Do you want to listen to the music of your grandparents! That's where this assignment comes in.

Your mission here is to find out what we can do to make sure creative work remains under proper control. You will investigate the laws of copyright and report your findings back to your SSI Chief. You will also need to find out if there is a way to legitimately use the work done by others so that you are not accused of operating illegally. Your assignment includes spreading the word so that others know the rules. When you have made a creative work of your own, you will learn of a way to protect that work so that you will be assured you are given proper credit for a job well done. Speaking of a job well done, agent, if you can successfully complete these quests you will earn your Agent Enforcer Badge.

Quest 1 Copyright Laws

Put on your investigator hat and dig into the copyright laws through these special videos and resources online. Responsible Agents must know what is legal and fair to use or share on the Internet.

Quest 1: Copyright Laws

Image of entry page for Copyright Kids

Introduction

Have you ever taken something that didn't belong to you? Most honest people have not. Have you ever downloaded music, movies, or games without paying for them? Most honest people probably have. Did you know that when you download material from the Internet you may be infringing on someone's copyright? Your mission in this quest is to find out what the laws are regarding using materials found on the Internet. Use the resources provided for you below to find out more about copyright and how the law may apply to you, or to those you might be investigating in the future.

Investigation Copyright Kids Steps:

Step 1

Visit http://www.copyrightkids.org/  and read through the Copyright Basics & FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) page. Your SSI Chief may want to go over these with you.
Look for additional answers to common questions at cyberbee.com

Step 2

Watch two videos on copyright and fair use. Answer the following 7 questions as you are viewing the videos (you are encouraged to copy these questions and paste them into a word processing program or your blog and answer them there).

1. What is copyright?
2. How long does the copyright on an original work last?
3. What is the fair use act?
4. What is plagiarism?
5. What types of things can be copyrighted? What cannot be copyrighted?
6. What is the public domain?
7. The fair use act allows anyone to use copyrighted materials for educational purposes. What other uses are covered under the fair use act?

Step 3

Demonstrate your learning to your SSI Chief by creating a digital artifact for your portfolio. You may use any program such as PowerPoint, Prezi, or Publisher to complete this task. You must include the information you gathered during this quest plus public domain images or clip art to help illustrate your learning (remember to cite your sources correctly). Your SSI Chief may have some suggestions for finding public domain images on the Internet.

Step 4

Successsfully complete the Copyright Quiz. Your SSI Chief has access to the answers to check it for accuracy. We trust you will earn a passing score on the copyright quiz and be ready for the next quest. Good luck agent.

Super Agent Optional Bonus Activity

Write a short personal reflection piece describing a time when you unknowingly broke copyright laws. Based on what you have learned in this quest, who might your actions have affected and why? What steps might you take next time to ensure you are being legal and fair.

Completing this Quest

In order to successfully complete this quest you must provide your SSI Chief with accurate information about copyright by handing in your questions and Quiz results. Save your digital artifact to your secret file space or post it to your digital portfolio online.

 Check this off your tracking document

Quest 2: The Source

The Scream
by Edvard Munch

"I was walking along the road with two friends. The Sun was setting -
The Sky turned a bloody red
And I felt a whiff of Melancholy - I stood
Still, deathly tired - over the blue-black
Fjord and City hung Blood and Tongues of Fire
My Friends walked on - I remained behind
- shivering with Anxiety. I felt the great Scream in Nature."

From http://middleschoolpoetry180.wordpress.com/2012/05/10/174-the-scream-edvard-munch/

Introduction

As you have already discovered, the Internet provides connectedness and comes with a huge amount of shared information. In your investigations you've found audio, video, text, images, software, and much more. With access to all this information, it is the responsibility of all 21t4s agents to make sure you and others around you use it in a way that is legal and fair. It is time to demonstrate to your SSI Chief that you know how to do this.

Your task is to create something new from existing work. Part of the fair use rules state that you can use copyrighted materials provided you use it in a way that supports learning, use only a portion of the material, and give credit to the creator of the material. These are the rules for your creative work.

Step 1: Find a poem or song lyrics from one of the websites listed below. Choose a poem or lyrics that interest you and is Agency appropriate. Copy and paste one stanza into a text document like MS Word, Google Docs or Open Office. Pay attention to the title, author of the poem, and the website that you used to find the material. You will need all this information later. You may want to bookmark the pages (using your diigo or delicious sites) so you can easily return to the page and paste the necessary credits into your document.

PoetryArchive.org

Middle School Poetry-Wordpress.com

Poets.org/Poems for Every Occasion

Step 2: Use one of the following sites to locate one or two images or photographs that relate to your poem or song. Save these images to your secret file space then insert them into the document you opened in step 1. Pay careful attention to where you found them and who the photographer is. You will need this information later. It may be a good idea to bookmark the pages or keep them open for step 3.

Freefoto

Pics4Learning

Public Domain Photo Database

Public Domain Photos

Flickr Free Use Group

Public Domain Images

Step 3: Now it's time to give credit where credit is due. Click on the image or hyperlink below to use one of the citation making sites to create a citation for the poem and image(s) you have used. Your SSI Chief may recommend one citation making tool over the others.

http://techbootcamptools4writing.weebly.com/formatting-amp-citations.html

Step 4: Choose the type of resource you are citing (poem, web-based image, etc) Type in the important information in the citation maker. You must include the title of the work, the author or copyright owner, the website you used to find it, and the date it was created. If other information is available you can also put that into the citation maker. Submit the information and you will get a citation that you can copy and paste into your document.

Step 5: Now put the poem or lyrics and picture(s) together in your own creative way. Add the citations to the bottom of the page.

Last Step: When the poem, pictures, and citations are all together in one document save it to your secret file space. If this is going to be attached to an online portfolio such as Weebly or EduBlogs, make sure that the image you chose was free of copyright. Fair use laws are different for projects that are on the Internet than they are for projects that will be presented in class.

Important Reminder from the Agency Chief:
Creating citations like you have done in this activity is very important any time you use something that was created by someone else. However, it is important to understand that creating a citation and giving credit to the author does not equal permission. If you use someone's work in any way that may not be considered fair use, you must obtain permission first.

Additional Resources

- Library of Congress-Fair Use Act
- Center for Social Media-Fair Use in Poetry
- The Fair Use Rule/Legal Encyclopedia

Check this Quest off on your Tracking Document

Quest 3: Stop the Pirates

Introduction

Your mission is to stop the pirates (aarrgh). No not those pirates. You will be creating a poster discouraging others from illegally downloading and reproducing content from the Internet (pirating). Your poster should have a clear message. Remember, copying copy protected music, movies, and games is stealing and it is harmful to the creative artists, musicians, developers and others involved in the work. To create your poster you may use various media such as digital photography, drawing tools, downloaded images, as well as online sites. Check with your SSI Chief to find out what application should be used to create your poster. Some online sites include: sumopaint.com, glogster.com, paint.net, etc...

Step 1:
Sketch out your poster idea offline so that you will know what you want the finished product to look like. Be sure to include some text that conveys your message.

Step 2:
Take digital pictures if necessary, or collect public domain images for use in your poster. Check out the links below for some images in the public domain

Freefoto

Pics4Learning

Public Domain Photos

Flickr Free Use Group

Public Domain Images

Creative Commons Public Domain Search Engine

Step 3:
Create your poster using the appropriate software. Add your signature (first name only) to your poster to verify that it is indeed your work. Save your poster as a .JPG or .PNG file in your secret file space.

Step 4:
Learn to use creative commons , an alternative way to license your own work and select the rules about how your work can be used by others.

Watch this informational video

Creative Commons "Wanna Work Together" from Ryan Junell on Vimeo.

Watch this video

Building on the Past from Creative Commons on Vimeo.

Step 5:
Use Creative Commons.org  to create a license for your work. If you are new to Creative Commons, click on "Licenses" and choose "About the Licenses" to learn more. When you are ready to create a license select "Choose a License" from the drop down menu. Click on the buttons to set the attributes for your license. Type in a name for your project and put your name (first name only or a secret code name) in the appropriate boxes. Your SSI Chief may have some suggestions for you at this point. Click "Select License" at the bottom of the page when you are all set.

Completing this Quest

If your poster is going to be uploaded to a website such as Weebly, copy the HTML code from Creative Commons for your license. You can paste this code into your webpage just below your poster. That's all there is to it.
If your poster is not going on the Internet at this time, follow the directions for offline work after you have created a license. Copy the given text and attach it to your poster.

Exceptional Agent Optional Assignment

Research P2P, File sharing, or BitTorrent sites. In a short essay tell what these are, how it works, and how they violate copyright laws. Find examples of the possible consequences of using these types of sites.

I have completed these Quests and Mission and checked it off on my tracking document

Be Legal and Fair Question

What is copyright?

- The right to copy anything you want to
- Protecting one’s work
Feedback: Great job!
- The right to copy anything
- A program for copying things

Be Legal and Fair Question

How long does the copyright on an original work last?

- All copyrighted work published after 1978 is 70 plus the life of the author
Feedback: Great job!
- All copyrighted work published after 1978 is 80 plus the life of the author.
- All copyrighted work published after 1978 is 90 plus the life of the author.
- All copyrighted work published after 1978 is 100 plus the life of the author.

Be Legal and Fair Question

What is Plagiarism?

- popular gaming program
- Copying another person’s work
- A severe and potentially deadly bacterial infection
- Playing music

Be Legal and Fair Question

What is the public domain?

- Belonging and available to all
Feedback: Great job!
- A public place to visit
- A main place to live
- The Public Library

Be Legal and Fair Question

What is the Fair Use Act?

- As long as you are fair you can use copyrighted works
- You can use anything you want as long as it is for education
- It allows anyone to use copyrighted materials for educational purposes
- An act in a Shakespeare play

Be Legal and Fair-Mission Completed

Congratulations you have completed the Be Legal and Fair Mission.

To receive your Badge or certificate for completion from your SSI Chief :

1.  Take this Be Legal and Fair.   The password for the quiz is legal21 .  Do your best!

2.  Take a screenshot of your quiz results to show your SSI Chief.

3.  Please take this short survey to share your ideas on how to improve these activities and this 21things4students resource.

4.   Show your completed work for this mission to your SSI Chief to receive your Be Legal and Fair Badge.