Sampling

My brother Mark sent me a fantastic video that sums up copyright law and sampling in an easy to understand presentation. When you log on to Nate Harrison’s site, click on “Can I Get An Amen?” from 2004. You will then need to click on “Listen to Project”. The artist beautifully illustrates how the most sampled drum loop in history has been effected by the people who used the sample, as well as how copyright law protects it (or doesn’t). I strongly urge you to check out the video and share it with as many people as you can - especially students. Harrison raises some very interesting points throughout. Thanks Mark for sending me the link!

I welcome your comments and suggestions.

As many of you already know, the RIAA has launched a campaign to strong-arm universities across the country to divulge the private information behind their student IP addresses that have been flagged for illegal downloading - and it is working. The RIAA has been sending subpoenas to universities to turn over the information or face litigation, and possibly bad press. Once the student s have been identified, the RIAA sends them to P2PWebsites.com where they can settle their copyright infringement cases for between $3,000 and $4,000.

Most universities have been turning the information over without a fight. Until now - enter the University of Oregon. In a New York Times article today, titled In The Fight Over Piracy, A Rare Stand For Privacy, details of a lawsuit defending the privacy of the U Oregon student body paint a picture of a legal battle that the RIAA was not expecting. With the help of Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers, the University of Oregon has decided that it will not play the role of police officer for the RIAA. While there is no argument over whether or not the actions of their students are illegal, and legal precedent for such a stand puts the university on shaky ground, it will be very interesting to see how this particular legal battle unfolds. Will the RIAA give up on universities and begin a more widespread subpoena campaign against individual home music pirates? Imagine getting an email from the RIAA sending you to P2PLawsuits.com. That would ruin your day.

I welcome your comments and suggestions.

Have a wonderful New Year!

My good friend Tom Rudolph sent me a link to one of the best technology writers out there, David Pogue. The article does a wonderful job of illustrating differences in perceptions between the generations of what is copyright infringement and what isn’t - not just from aan understanding of the law, but the attitudes about content and its distribution. Very insightful. Below is the full text. Hope you enjoy it.

The Generational Divide in Copyright Morality

by David Pogue - New York Times, December 20, 2007

I’ve been doing a good deal of speaking recently. And in one of my talks, I tell an anecdote about a lesson I learned from my own readers.

It was early in 2005, and a little hackware program called PyMusique was making the rounds of the Internet. PyMusique was written for one reason only: to strip the copy protection off of songs from the iTunes music store.

The program’s existence had triggered an online controversy about the pros, cons and implications of copy protection. But to me, there wasn’t much gray area. “To me, it’s obvious that PyMusique is designed to facilitate illegal song-swapping online,” I wrote. And therefore, it’s wrong to use it.

Readers fired back with an amazingly intelligent array of counterexamples: situations where duplicating a CD or DVD may be illegal, but isn’t necessarily *wrong.* They led me down a garden path of exceptions, proving that what seemed so black-and-white to me is a spectrum of grays.

I was so impressed that I incorporated their examples into a little demonstration in this particular talk. I tell the audience: “I’m going to describe some scenarios to you. Raise your hand if you think what I’m describing is wrong.”

Then I lead them down the same garden path:

“I borrow a CD from the library. Who thinks that’s wrong?” (No hands go up.)

“I own a certain CD, but it got scratched. So I borrow the same CD from the library and rip it to my computer.” (A couple of hands.)

“I have 2,000 vinyl records. So I borrow some of the same albums on CD from the library and rip those.”

“I buy a DVD. But I’m worried about its longevity; I have a three-year-old. So I make a safety copy.”

With each question, more hands go up; more people think what I’m describing is wrong.

Then I try another tack:

“I record a movie off of HBO using my DVD burner. Who thinks that’s wrong?” (No hands go up. Of course not; time-shifting is not only morally O.K., it’s actually legal.)

“I *meant* to record an HBO movie, but my recorder malfunctioned. But my buddy recorded it. Can I copy his DVD?” (A few hands.)

“I meant to record an HBO movie, but my recorder malfunctioned and I don’t have a buddy who recorded it. So I rent the movie from Blockbuster and copy that.” (More hands.)

And so on.

The exercise is intended, of course, to illustrate how many shades of wrongness there are, and how many different opinions. Almost always, there’s a lot of murmuring, raised eyebrows and chuckling.

Recently, however, I spoke at a college. It was the first time I’d ever addressed an audience of 100 percent young people. And the demonstration bombed.

In an auditorium of 500, no matter how far my questions went down that garden path, maybe two hands went up. I just could not find a spot on the spectrum that would trigger these kids’ morality alarm. They listened to each example, looking at me like I was nuts.

Finally, with mock exasperation, I said, “O.K., let’s try one that’s a little less complicated: You want a movie or an album. You don’t want to pay for it. So you download it.”

There it was: the bald-faced, worst-case example, without any nuance or mitigating factors whatsoever.

“Who thinks that might be wrong?”

Two hands out of 500.

Now, maybe there was some peer pressure involved; nobody wants to look like a goody-goody.

Maybe all this is obvious to you, and maybe you could have predicted it. But to see this vivid demonstration of the generational divide, in person, blew me away.

I don’t pretend to know what the solution to the file-sharing issue is. (Although I’m increasingly convinced that copy protection isn’t it.)

I do know, though, that the TV, movie and record companies’ problems have only just begun. Right now, the customers who can’t even *see* why file sharing might be wrong are still young. But 10, 20, 30 years from now, that crowd will be *everybody*. What will happen then?

Makes you think, huh?  What has caused this difference in perception?  Are the GenY’s ignorant of the law, or do they feel entitled to content - regardless of how they acquired it?  For those of use a little older, how would we have handled free access to anything - albeit often illegal?  I’m not sure.

I welcome your comments, questions, and suggestions.

Yesterday I came across a fantastic posting on Ben Rimes’ The Tech Savvy Educator blog entitled Best Copyright Movie…Ever!  A Fair(y) Use Tale.  It is a hilarious movie, created by Eric Faden, that strings together hundreds of different clips from various Disney movies that explains copyright law.  I strongly recommend downloading the video and showing it to your students.  Ben has actually created a handout for his students that you can download and have them complete after viewing the video.

Thanks Ben for posting the movie!

I welcome your comments and suggestions.

A True Story

Many people use the argument of “I’ll never get caught violating copyright law in my classroom, so why should I be cautious if no one else is?” The following email was sent to a former TC graduate student of mine from a parent. Thanks to his diligence in making sure that his website is compliant with copyright law, this story has a happy ending. Imagine if he didn’t….

Dear Mr. _______: 
My son asked me this evening if he could sign
up for the _________ Wikispace.  Prior to giving permission I wanted to know
a bit more about this.  What is it and who has access to it?  Also, he
mentioned something about music sharing and downloads and I need to know
more about this.  I am an attorney registered to practice before the United
States Patent and Trademark Office and thus am more sensitive than most
parents to any music file sharing to ensure that there is no downloads on
any of my personal computers is violation of copyright law from any file
sharing source.  It appears to me from what I could see about the site that
the file sharing pertains to music generated by the children.  If you could
let me know a bit more about the types of music files, if any, that are
available for download and sharing on this website.  If you would like to
speak with me about this I can be reached during business hours at (***)
***-****.  (My son) seems excited about this and I would like to let him
know whether he can participate in this so I would appreciate if you can get
back to me as soon as conveniently possible.  Thanks.

Thank you very much to my student for sharing this email with you. I hope that it helps to illustrate the need for music educators to be well versed in copyright law and fair use guidelines.

I welcome your comments and suggestions.

RIAA Wins Landmark Piracy Case

It the first ever trial in front of a Federal Jury, the RIAA won their lawsuit yesterday against a 30-year old Minnesota woman who was found guilty of illegally downloading 24 songs using the P2P service KaZaa. Jammie Thomas was ordered to pay $222,000 in fines after bringing her case to trial - a move that many saw as the first real test of the RIAA’s campaign to end illegal file sharing. The evidence against Ms. Thomas was overwhelming - she used a login ID and password that was easily traced to many other online accounts that she used. Her IP address was recorded when she created the most expensive playlist of all time ($9,250 per song). Instead of settling her case for the average $3,000 settlement that most agree to, Ms. Thomas fought the RIAA. This case will lend important precedent to other cases that will surely come before the courts in the next few years.

Wired News has a detailed chronology of the case posted on their site.

I welcome your coments and suggestions.

A Letter from the RIAA

Fellow Musiced.net blogger Evan Tobias forwarded the following email to me. Evan is a doctoral student at Northwestern University. I thought that you might be interested to see how the university is dealing with the recent onslaught of poison pen letters being sent to university students across America. Thanks Evan for sending me the email.

An important message to all Northwestern University students:

The Recording Industry Association of America (the “RIAA”) continues its efforts to curtail unlawful peer-to-peer file sharing of music over the Internet. Earlier this year, approximately 16 Northwestern students were contacted by the RIAA and requested to resolve claims of copyright violations through out-of-court settlements. According to the RIAA, the vast majority agreed to settle. Based on information received from those individuals who agreed to settle, the average settlement amount has been approximately $3,000.

Using its own process of monitoring peer-to-peer traffic, the RIAA identified IP addresses for members of the Northwestern University student body alleged to have violated copyright laws. The RIAA then notifies the University that it intends to issue pre-litigation settlement letters for these students, outlining the details of the settlement process and threatening to initiate legal proceedings against these students, should they elect not to participate in the settlement process. Upon receiving such settlement letters, the University promptly takes steps to identify and notify the students at issue. The University does not share information about the identities of individuals with the RIAA unless required to do so by law (e.g., in response to a lawful subpoena).

Northwestern University does not condone unlawful downloading and unauthorized peer-to-peer file sharing of copyright-protected works. Individuals who engage in these practices are in violation of University policy (see “Rights and Responsibilities for the Use of Central Network and Computing Resources at Northwestern University”, at http://www.it.northwestern.edu/policies/responsibilities.html) and may be subject to University disciplinary action as well as civil and criminal penalties.

Northwestern requires the members of its community to respect the intellectual property of others and abide by all applicable laws. If you have engaged in file-sharing activity (e.g., downloading of movies, music, TV shows or software) in violation of copyright laws, you should immediately cease any such illegal file-sharing activity and the use or distribution of any illegally obtained material. (Unless you are the target of an enforcement action and subject to related evidence preservation requirements, you may also wish to remove such materials and the program you used to obtain them from your computer.) Lawful downloading of music is possible through Apple iTunes, MSN music, Rhapsody, Ruckus, and other web-based providers. Further information concerning these services may be found at the following sites, among others:

http://mp3.about.com/od/wheretobuymusic/a/all_profile.htm and

http://mp3.about.com/od/freemusicdownloads/tp/freeandlegalmp3.htm.

I welcome your comments and suggestions.

Using Copyright Protected Images On Your Website

Over the years I have seen numerous examples of school and personal websites that are beautifully illustrated using copyright-protected images - things like cartoon characters, brand logos, and more. Is this legal? Is it Fair Use?

Not surprisingly, the answer isn’t always that clear. While it may be considered a Fair Use to use copyright protected images on a school website or as part of a project, it depends on whether or not the website that you obtained the image from, or the company that owns the trademark on the image, has a specific set of guidelines for using their images on your site.  Most do.  For example, if you want to use an image of Mickey Mouse on your school website, the odds are that Disney will issue a “take-down” order because the company rigorously pursues people who infringe on their copyright protected property. It would be difficult to explain how the use of an image of Mickey Mouse on a website is educational, or Fair Use. While the school won’t make any money whatsoever from using the image, you need permission to use the image on the site - and you won’t get it.  As for using the images for a project - like a report or a PowerPoint presentation, it would be considered a Fair Use of the image as long as the project is not available online.  It’s all about access.  If someone can download it, it is most likely going to be a problem.

What about less well-known characters?  Same thing.  While you need permission to use the images on a website (permission that you’ll most likely not receive) it is a Fair Use to use them in projects (you don’t need permission).  If you have copyright protected images on your site, the worst thing that can happen to you is that you will receive a take-down notice that you must comply with.  My advice however, is to use only copyright and royalty free images on your site.  My favorite site for finding copyright and royalty free images is Music Graphics Galore.  The site contains thousands of images that can be used on your website.

I welcome your comments and suggestions.

Fair Use Resources

Many teachers wonder what they can and cannot do as far as utilizing copyright protected materials in their classroom - whether it is playing a CD or video for the students, or using recordings in podcasts and other multimedia presentations.  There are quite a few websites online that provide easy-to-understand guides that answer those questions exactly.  Here are some great links to find out more:

• Copyright and Fair Use Guidelines for Teachers
• The Copyright Quiz
• Public Domain Guide
• Constitutional Rights Foundation
• Downloadable Copyright Chart

Hopefully these resources will help you find answers to your fair use and copyright questions.  If not, please feel free to leave a comment with your question, and I’ll get the answer to you.