This is not a post about copyright. It is, very indirectly, a post about how I talk about copyright. But the real point here is about how word choice (and to a lesser extent, choices to invoke some more general concepts) in public speaking can affect individuals in the audience. It is about how not …
Tag Archives: teaching
Plagiarism-detection software harms students
Students are often not terribly clear about what constitutes plagiarism. You may chalk this up to inadequate instruction in high school or first-year undergraduate writing classes. But I’ll let you in on a secret: academics, in general, are not always clear about what constitutes plagiarism. Despite this real-world lack of clarity, plagiarism-detection software often presents …
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A point of certainty in fair use
Fair use exists in order to provide some flexibility in enabling uses that we believe are socially valuable enough they shouldn’t require permission and/or payment. But because of that flexibility, fair use is often presented as a dangerously unpredictable piece of the law. Although I avoid that framing, even I…
11th Circuit Rules On Georgia State Fair Use Case
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals issued its ruling today in Cambridge University Press et. al. v. Patton – otherwise known as “the Georgia State case.” This is a case in which academic publishers (Cambridge UP, Oxford UP, and Sage) sued a public university for use of excerpts from books…
Copyright Decisionmaking Flowchart – Some Critical Reflections
Yesterday, a new infographic on copyright decisionmaking for teachers started making the rounds in my social media spheres. It originates from http://langwitches.org/blog/2014/06/10/copyright-flowchart-can-i-use-it-yes-no-if-this-then/ Because several people asked my opinion of it, and because several other people responded with concern equal to mine when I shared it, I thought it’d be worthwhile…
On not scaring people.
For folks who haven’t thought much about copyright before, the end result of attending one of my presentations or workshops, especially ones focused on fair use, is sometimes a very constraining feeling of fear. I’ve known about the problem for a while, and have tried a number of more and…
How I Talk About Fair Use – Intro & “Breathing Space”
When & why I Talk About Fair Use “How do we/I know what we/I can and cannot do with other people’s stuff?” is one of the primary things I’m asked to talk about in trainings and other outreach and education efforts. Often, what people think they really want to know…
