I discovered some interesting things reading about copyright. For one, I was misinformed. Nearly all of the truths about copyright that I thought were simply accepted, like the 10% rule for educators, was bunk. I found that really interesting. I never bothered to really look that up because frankly, I didn't care. I always credited what I took, or take, and it never occurred to me to take an entire piece of anything. I always assumed that newspaper articles, short web clips, and pictures on the web were fair game. When they had a banner across them I figured I couldn't use them. And because I always used them in a different fashion it didn't even occur to me that I would have problems.

I am overly concerned with downloading movies or music, especially music for free. That is an absolute sin in my mind. And when I have discussed it with my students, none of them seem to be at all concerned that they are stealing. Ted Nugent, yeah, that guy, Cat Scratch Fever, bow hunting, right wing conservative, wrote a great piece about downloading songs. In effect he stated that you would not ever consider going into a grocery store, pulling stuff off the shelf, and selling it out on the street. I loved that. It really made things clear to me. And as a working musician in a previous life I know of the hard work that goes into creating stuff. To have it taken is just wrong.

That being said, I found the book a bit … dull. It really did not do much for me because it is not something I ever really worried about. That being said, I am more concerned with plagiarism than copyright infringement. My students don't have that much opportunity--at least so far--to really download stuff that would get them into trouble in regards to copyright--with the exception of music and movies; and I have been railing against that practice for years. Plagiarism, however, is becoming more and more of a problem. It isn't hard to catch. For one, there are usually words that I have to look up. Secondly, they forget to change the font or the color. And finally, the punctuation is perfect. I really don't miss much if they are cutting and pasting stuff. Sometimes it is done out of ignorance, sometimes out of laziness, but I try to use it as a teachable moment. The school's policy to give a student who commits plagiarism an F for the Advisory. I usually give a warning and an explanation and that seems to do the trick. If anything, my students become overly concerned and they cite birthdays (on occasion). Then I have to explain common knowledge, but that is a whole other story. I have only failed one student in 14 years and he was a jerk who got caught three straight times on three different assignments. He was nasty, lazy, and quite frankly, while not intellectually challenged in any way, stupid. He deserved the F. In fact, he earned it.

I know that as I move forward and incorporate more electronic assignments to my classes that I need to discuss these matters more fully. The only issue is time. They are required to take a course in computer application and one would like to think that this would be dealt with in that class. But it isn't and that leads me to the conundrum I find myself in. I can ask the teacher to include this in his class, but I am not sure he would react well to being told what to teach. The kids come from his class not even knowing how to set up the formatting on Word and it has been mentioned to me that I am stepping on people's toes when I offer after school sessions about stuff like that. Ahh, the adventure continues!