Educators are expected to respect, and to teach their students to respect, the copyrights of creators of all intellectual property.

Teachers have an ethical obligation to teach their students to obey the laws of this country and to serve as models of this type of behavior by obeying the laws themselves. The laws of this country protect creators of intellectual property from loss or devaluation of their property. Intellectual property, by definition, is the property of the person who created it.

Traditionally, intellectual property consisted of works such as literature, music, and works of art. In this new age of technology, intellectual property also includes computer software and internet websites. This property is protected by copyright law, which gives the creator the right to decide how the property is to be used and to profit by it if so desired. Any infringement of a copyright is a form of theft. Unauthorized copying of a work robs the creator of any profit that would have been made by selling it. Plagiarism robs the creator of the credit deserved for creating it.

Because of photocopy machines, the ease of the cut and paste functions on a computer, and the difficulty of keeping track of many linked sources on the internet, copyright infringement, including both plagiarism and unauthorized copying, can occur much more easily than ever before. The following practices are necessary in order to avoid these forms of theft:

Cite references to the work of others.

Plagiarism is illegal. Teachers should take great care to cite other's work and teach students the issues regarding plagiarism as well as how to avoid plagiarizing other's work. With the increased use of the Internet, it is more difficult than ever to detect the use of plagiarism and is more crucial than ever that students be taught the importance of creating their own materials. Lesson ideas for teaching elementary students can be found at:

Apple Learning Interchange - Learning Resources.

Another excellent resource for educators on how to avoid plagiarism is found at:

Hamilton College - Hamilton Writing Center.

Here is a website developed for high school and college educators that allows you to upload a student's paper in order to search the Internet for same and similar wording:

iParadigms - Turnitin

According to fair use guidelines, small parts of a work may be used for "scholarly reports." Whenever this type of use is incurred, credit for the original work should be given to the author through proper citation. Traditional forms of citation, which included books, magazines, encyclopedia articles, etc., have been expanded to include the citation of web pages, CDs, etc. There are many websites that give examples of how to cite these sources. Here are a few:

Debbie Abilock - Noodle Tools

The Internet Public Library - Citing Electronic Resources

Cyberbee - Citing Electronic Resources

Writer's Handbook - Documentation APA Style: Citing Electronic Sources

William Patterson University of New Jersey - Guide for Citing Electronic Information

Binghamton University Library - Citing Internet and Other Electronic Resources

Follow fair use guidelines when making copies of materials.

Both students and teachers are allowed to make copies of limited sections of an intellectual work for the purpose of education. This includes photocopying, printing from a CD-ROM, or printing from the internet. In the case of audio or video recordings made from television or other sources, teachers are allowed to use these recordings in the classroom for a limited amount of time, but then must erase or otherwise discard them. As to how much constitutes fair use, each district should draft guidelines that will help teachers and students determine where fair use crosses over into theft. In most cases, common sense will be enough to know when the author is being deprived of fair profits.

Only install software that has been legally purchased or licensed for a particular computer.

Although it is possible to download software for use on multiple computers, doing so is a form of theft. Copying a program onto a blank diskette or burning it onto a blank CD to sell or give away is also considered theft. In both cases the creator is being robbed of multiple sales profits. Computer software regulations state that you:

1. Must abide by all terms of the software license agreement.

2. Must be aware that ALL computer software is protected by copyright unless it is explicitly labeled as PUBLIC DOMAIN.

3. Must not copy software for any purpose outside those allowed in that particular software's license agreement.

4. Must not make software available for others to use or copy in violation of that software's license agreement.

5. Must not accept unlicensed software from any third party.

Schools that purchase software have the right to download it onto one computer at a time. If multiple copies are desired, it is possible to purchase "lab packs" or a site license in order to meet that need.

 

Definition of Copyright

Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (title 17, U.S. Code). Copyright provides protection to the creators of intellectual property by granting them complete control over how that property will be used and/or marketed. "The owner of copyright has the exclusive right to reproduce, distribute, and, in the case of certain works, publicly perform or display the work; to prepare derivative works; or to license others to engage in the same acts under specific terms and conditions. A copyright protects all kinds of original works, both published and unpublished, "including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works such as poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software and architecture. It does not protect facts, ideas, procedures, or methods of operation. All works, whether they are registered with the U.S. Copyright Office or not, have copyright protection " from the time the work is created in fixed form."

Copyrights are limited under certain circumstances. The fair use doctrine of the U.S. copyright statute allows use of limited portions of a work, including quotes, for noncommercial purposes such as commentary, criticism, news reporting, and scholarly reports. The amount of material used should be minimal, although there are no legal rules that determine what specific number of words, musical notes, or percentages of a work constitute fair use. Fair use also requires that the value of the material not be diminished by the use of it. The determination of whether a particular use qualifies as fair use depends on the circumstances of each case. Another limitation to copyright is a "compulsory license" under which certain limited uses of copyrighted works are permitted upon payment of specified royalties and compliance with statutory conditions.

Definition of Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the act of using the words or ideas of another person without giving credit to that person, thus taking the credit for oneself. Plagiarism can be done in two ways. In both cases, credit should be given to the original author in order to avoid plagiarism. The first way to commit plagiarism is to copy someone else's words exactly. When using the exact words, they should be enclosed in quotation marks and credit given to the author either in parentheses immediately after the quote or with a number that refers to a source list. The second type of plagiarism is to paraphrase someone's ideas by changing only a few words or phrases or rearranging the sentences. In the case of paraphrasing, credit still needs to be given to the original author. It is not necessary to cite facts or information that is considered common knowledge. This type of information would be known by many people and can be found in many sources. When using more than a few quotes, permission must be obtained from the original source before using the information.