Beware of Copyright Violations

Recently I spoke to the Middle School faculty about our responsibilities as educators to uphold and follow copyright law. Educators aren’t the only ones, though, who should be aware of the law. We all have a responsibility to respect and protect the rights that copyright holders are granted.

Some helpful guidelines to consider before deciding to reproduce, adapt, distribute, transmit, publicly perform or display:

Are you taking money away from the copyright holder …

• by reproducing the work? For example, you buy one DVD and make copies of it for your friends. This is a violation.
• by having a public performance using the work? For example, you are planning a fundraiser for Darlington School during which a hit movie will be shown and participants are charged a fee. This is a violation.
• by adapting the work? For example, your youth group decides to have a Halloween party and decides to advertise it as “The Wicked Party” using graphics from the hit Broadway musical "Wicked." This is a violation.

Although these few examples may seem restrictive, it is important to put yourself in the shoes of the copyright holder. He/she may have spent many years creating their artwork, film or novel. It only takes one person misusing the work to rob the copyright holder of the monetary and/or critical acclaim that they justly earned by creating an original work.