K12 Online Conference

Yesterday I watched a presentation from the archives of the K12 online coference. The presenter was Mathew Needleman discussing copyright laws as they apply to content used in the classroom. He made a number of excellent points: content costs money to develop, free to use doesn't mean free, and that one person violating copyright laws is no big deal, but when millions infringe, it's a problem. The gist of his presentation is that teachers are not exempt from copyright laws, but they are often allowed the privledge of using content in the classroom; the line is drawn at posting copyrighted content on websites where others can access it. For example, I could show a brief movie clip to my class, but I cannot put that clip on the school website to be viewed by the public.