It’s a Brand New Day
I am hearing the song “It’s a Brand New Day” by Dr. Horrible.
Question 1: Who has copyright for items that you create for your classroom? The answer to that question is dependent on where you live.
In the US:
According to the book “Copyright for Schools, A Practical Guide“, the school retains the copyright. If anyone knows how to get around this, I would love to hear about it. Or, if things have changed in the past few years, I would love to hear the about the legislation or court ruling that changes this.
In Germany:
According to the book “Urheberrecht in der Schule“, the teacher retains copyright (Urheberrecht).
This information is based on research that I did last year in preparation for a staff trainings and educational conference presentations that I made in the last school year. I no longer have the books in front of me, so I cannot give you the exact page references.
The book, “Copyright for Schools…” is an awesome book written by an educator for educators to become acquainted with many of the different issues surrounding copyright in schools. It also comes with nice templates that you can use in your school (photo release forms, student work release forms, example policies)… The only weakness of the book is that it was published in 2005. The laws for copyright are continuously modifying themselves– especially in the area of digital media– so this book is a great snapshot up through 2005, but you will have to do some legwork to catch up with the latest developments.
The book, “Urheberrecht…” is a very conservative book on “fair use (die Beschränkung der Rechte des Urhebers)” in schools in Germany written by a lawyer. I used it as a starting point for research into German copyright law for schools. It has the same weakness as “Copyright for Schools…” in that it is a static manuscript documenting a moving target, but it also offers a solid (albeit very, very conservative) summary of issues that have been dealt with already in schools. But, it is very nice that it attempts to put German copyright law into layman’s terms.
Haupt, Stephan (2006). Urheberrecht in der Schule. Munich: Verlag Medien und Recht.
Simpson, Carol (2005). Copyright in schools: a practical guide. Linworth Publishing.
