Exercises in Image Use and Editing

Students are exploring issues of image copyright, public domain and sharing (commons) licenses - and, at the same time, learning basics of image editing. They will be putting all this knowledge together by making five (5) mock-ups of popular internet memes like LOLCats and Feminist Ryan Gosling. (or "Bosses Be Like" or Ashley Wagner or "You Had One Job" Memes.)

http://bit.ly/1f1iloz.
untitled, author unknown.
Public Domain CC0

http://bit.ly/1gbEcro
ericskiff
CC 2.0 (Image modified with text)

They will use legal-use images in all the compositions - EXCEPT FOR ONE!

They will be working to craft a "Fair Use" statement to account for legal use of ONE IMAGE that is a copyrighted material used in and educational setting. Students will explore the issues of copyright and legal use of copyrighted materials in connection with Section 107 of the  U.S. Copyright Code, which reads, in part:

Section 107 contains a list of the various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered fair, such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Section 107 also sets out four factors to be considered in determining whether or not a particular use is fair.

1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes
2. The nature of the copyrighted work
3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work

 While students will use, for the majority of their work, images that are in the public domain, or that are licensed under a Creative Commons license, they may, from time to time, find it is necessary to use a copyrighted image in their educational multimodal compositions. In these instances, students are expected to write and attach an explanation in keeping with the "Fair Use" section of the copyright law.

 

 

AP Photo/Darren Cummings
http://bit.ly/1j0H9hf
Fair Use Statement Below*

They can find more info at Wikipedia, or at the US Copyright site.

* The image in the Ashley Wagner Copyright Meme is used for educational purposes to instruct students about the nature of "memes" and the use of images and other intellectual property with respect to their designated licenses. The image is a file photo from Associated Press.The entire photo is used as it was released on the AP website. Its use in this non-profit, educational context does not affect the value or marketablility of the work.