| Fact #1- The "Fair Use" part of the US Copyright Law | | | | "public domain photos," or "royalty free photos," for |
| says that in most cases you can allow your students | | | | example. One of my personal favorites is the Stock |
| to use copyrighted material such as songs, photos, and | | | | XChange but there are many others. |
| other media as long as the finished product is not going | | | | Another good alternative that some schools possess |
| to be reproduced and distributed. | | | | is a site license subscription to a clip art service. For a |
| Fact #2- In real life (outside the classroom) doing the | | | | flat fee schools and local area education agencies can |
| same thing is illegal and a violation of copyright law | | | | purchase annual subscriptions to various sites which |
| punishable by fines and/or jail time. | | | | allow their students and faculty with free, legal access |
| Because of the latter I always recommend that | | | | to thousands of copyrighted photos that can be used |
| teachers give their students the tools and information | | | | in most kinds of presentations without restriction. The |
| to complete projects using free, public domain | | | | site offers this type of service. |
| alternatives. Say for example you assign your | | | | Remember, while some sites openly allow you to use |
| students to create a Power Point presentation on a | | | | their images in any publication you choose, others will |
| specific topic. In the assignment you mandate that the | | | | restrict what you can use it for and how it can be |
| presentation must include at least one graphic on each | | | | reproduced. Always check the usage policy or |
| slide relevant to this topic. Rather than allowing the | | | | copyright policy on the site before using any images or |
| students to go out on the web and "steal" images | | | | other content in a presentation. By insisting that your |
| from other sites, demonstrate how to find legal content | | | | students follow these rules you are helping to instill a |
| during your initial presentation. Such photos and other | | | | definite sense of right and wrong in regard to this very |
| content are easy to find, just do a Google search for | | | | "grey" issue. |