Music Company Does Not Own 'Happy Birthday' Song Copyright, Judge Rules A federal judge on Tuesday ruled that Warner/Chappell Music does not own the copyright rights to the famous "Happy Birthday to You" song, which has become a nearly mandatory part of birthday celebrations across the country and beyond. Federal judge George H. King made the ruling Tuesday in response to a lawsuit that sought to have the song placed in the public domain. Tuesday's ruling means the song is now in the public domain and the company can no longer charge for public performances, the law firm that filed the suit said. Warner/Chappell claimed it assumed copyright of the song when it acquired Birch Tree Ltd. in 1998. King ruled that a copyright claimed by the predecessor of Birch Tree, the Clayton F. "Because Summy Co. never acquired the rights to the Happy Birthday lyrics, Defendants, as Summy Co.' The suit claims Warner/Chappell collects $2 million a year in licensing fees for the song.
6 Open Educational Resources There's a subtle but steady shift happening in classrooms across the nation. More and more, schools are seeking efficient, cost-effective alternatives to using paper and supporting over-priced textbook companies. One way is by supporting technology in schools. Schools are seeking ways to upgrade and sustain wireless infrastructures and integrate mobile devices that broaden teaching and learning opportunities. Setting the Stage for Creative Exploration and Inquiry What's exciting about this shift in content curation, creation and distribution is that it allows teachers opportunities to work with the most current information available and serve as the expert when vetting content. Time is the hurdle here. Once you narrow down your digital collaboration space, the next hurdle is content. Resources for Exploring, Sharing and Integrating To start, here are some outlets providing open educational resources that teachers can begin exploring, sharing and integrating relatively quickly. Curriki
Judge Rules Warner / Chappell Doesn't Have the Rights to 'Happy Birthday' Inside every dishwasher, refrigerator, and washing machine is a little valve that directs the flow of water. For decades, most of these valves have come from a factory in the northwestern corner of Illinois, but not after today. The solenoid valve is a largely unknown but ubiquitous gadget. Hidden away in the guts of an appliance, when activated, the electromechanical valve opens to allow water into a washing machine or dishwasher, while monitoring temperature and volume. For decades, the majority of the world’s supply of solenoid valves came not from Chicago or China, but from a little factory in the northwestern corner of Illinois.
Open Educational Resources (OER): Resource Roundup Resources by Topic: OER, a part of the global open content movement, are shared teaching, learning, and research resources available under legally recognized open licenses -- free for people to reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute. Why are OER important? High-quality OER can save teachers significant time and effort on resource development and advance student learning inside and outside the classroom. Further, open sharing of resources has the potential to fuel collaboration, encourage the improvement of available materials, and aid in the dissemination of best practices. For more about the potential of OER, check out "5-Minute Film Festival: Why Open Education Matters," by Edutopia's VideoAmy. Getting Started Sharing Resources The nonprofit Creative Commons offers free, easy-to-use copyright licenses that allow you to specify which rights to your works you want to reserve and which rights you'd like to waive. Quality Considerations With all the promise of OER, some challenges remain.
Happy Birthday Is Finally Public Domain, China's Official Linux Distro...[Tech News Digest] The song “Happy Birthday” finally enters the public domain, a look at the Linux distro the Chinese government is hoping to replace Windows with, people are watching fewer season premiers this year, Pebble’s got an attractive new watch, and a cat that is absolutely up to no good. Happy Birthday Is Now Public Domain Have you ever wondered why TV and movie characters go out of their way to avoid singing “Happy Birthday”? It’s because the song, despite its public domain melody and culturally omnipresent lyrics, weren’t free to use. But no more! Eight decades later, the bogus copyright claim to "Happy Birthday" has been busted. EFF (@EFF) September 23, 2015 You can read more about this decision at the Washington Post, and you totally should. What we can do, legally, is print the lyrics to Happy Birthday, without fear of reprisal: Happy birthday to you Happy birthday to you Happy birthday dear reader Happy birthday to you! Seriously, how was that not public domain?
WebQuest.Org: Home Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video • Code of Best Practices • Common Fair Use Myths • Getting to Know Your Code of Best Practices • Copyright Backgrounder • Recut, Reframe, Recycle • Unauthorized: The Copyright Conundrum in Participatory Video • The Good, The Bad and the Confusing: User-Generated Video Creators on Copyright • Latest News in Fair Use • Videos June 2008Click here to view or download a PDF of this report. Report by: The Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property,American University Washington College of LawThe Center for Media & Social Impact,American University With funding from: The Ford Foundation,by way of the Future of Public Media Project Introduction Background Best Practices 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Conclusion Notes Common Fair Use Myths What This Is This document is a code of best practices that helps creators, online providers, copyright holders, and others interested in the making of online video interpret the copyright doctrine of fair use. What This Isn't How This Document Was Created Back to top Michael C.
home Fair Use The policy behind copyright law is not simply to protect the rights of those who produce content, but to "promote the progress of science and useful arts." U.S. Const. Art. I, § 8, cl. 8. Section 107 of the Copyright Act defines fair use as follows: [T]he fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. Unfortunately, there is no clear formula that you can use to determine the boundaries of fair use. The Four Fair Use Factors 1. If you use another's copyrighted work for the purpose of criticism, news reporting, or commentary, this use will weigh in favor of fair use. A common misconception is that any for-profit use of someone else's work is not fair use and that any not-for-profit use is fair. 2. 3. 4.
GeorgiaNETS - home About the Fair Use| U.S. Copyright Office U.S. Copyright Office Fair Use Index Welcome to the U.S. Copyright Office Fair Use Index. The Fair Use Index tracks a variety of judicial decisions to help both lawyers and non-lawyers better understand the types of uses courts have previously determined to be fair—or not fair. The Fair Use Index is designed to be user-friendly. Although the Fair Use Index should prove helpful in understanding what courts have to date considered to be fair or not fair, it is not a substitute for legal advice. We hope you find the Fair Use Index a helpful resource. Please note that the Copyright Office is unable to provide specific legal advice to individual members of the public about questions of fair use.
23 Excellent Professional Development Tools for Teachers Today we are sharing with you some web tools to help you grow professionally. These are probably the best you can ever find online. Check out the list below and share with us your suggestions and additions. This is a work in progress. Enjoy 1- Education World This is a great website that offers all the resources you need to grow professionally. 2- Classroom2.0 In this networking group, you can get connected with other educators who are interested in Web 2.0, social media, and more in the classroom. 3- Diigo Collect, highlight, remember, and share all of the great resources you find online with your PLN on Diigo, and annotation and online bookmarking tool. 4- Discovery Education There is no way that you did not hear about this awesome website. 5- Google Rss With Google Reader or any other great RSS tool, you can subscribe to blogs and stay on top of it all. 6- Twitter 7- Staff Develop 9- Ed Week Ed Week is a also one of the leading websites in education. 11- Educators Professional Development
Video and Copyright | Professional Tools Please note that ALA cannot give legal advice. If you need legal advice, you should contact an intellectual property attorney. For general information and guidance, you may contact Program Director Carrie Russell of the ALA Washington (DC) Office, at phone number 1-800-941-8478 or via e-mail to crussell@ala.org. See the blog sponsored by ALA's Office for Information Technology Policy in Washington, the Copyright Advisory Network: A community of librarians, copyright scholars, policy wonks. Join us. Many questions are answered on the United States Copyright Office website at Copyright.gov; see Frequently Asked Questions About Copyright and the Copyright Basics Circular (PDF). Resources and Publications for Librarians and Educators Answers to some of the most common questions concerning video and copyright have been addressed on the Ask the ALA Library Blog compiled by the ALA Library staff: Additional resources include: Use of Videotapes/DVDs/Video Files 1. 2. 3. 4.
Finding the Right Tool WebTools4U2Use will introduce you to a lot of different, powerful, useful tools.But... how do you choose the right one? By Task This mindmap by Toy Waterman provides a basic list of webtools from which to choose those most appropriate to different kinds of classroom activities. Click on the + near each type of activity to see some of the best tools for that task. Check out Project Bamboo's Digital Research Tools(Bamboo DiRT), Created and maintained by a partnership of several U. By Product By Cognitive Level By Learning Style Brian Gray created this ThingLink image that links to lists of recommended tools for each learning style. Another way to look at these tools: 100 Helpful Web Tools for Every Type of Learner recaps some of the tools listed in this wiki and more. By Instructional Strategy By Stage of Inquiry Here's a new search tool from the UK that will help you find just the right tool from the 100s available. it's organized around stages of inquiry based learning. By NETS*S By Category