Lesson Plan

Copyright Laws
Nicole Lopez

Objective: Students will learn about copyright laws by reviewing the history of
copyright and establish arguments on if our present day multimedia should have the
same copyright laws that were created in the past.

Standard:
ISTE Standard 5: Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related
to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior.

Length of Lesson
Lesson will take about 5 days of 90 minute periods
Day 1 & 2 Watch Documentary
Day 2 After watching documentary, give students time to go to websites found in
this lesson, or ones they find themselves, to find concrete details to support their
discussion in the Socratic Seminar and Assessment
Day 3 Socratic Seminar
Day 4 Assessment

Preparation
Room prepared for a Socratic Seminar
Projector visual and audio are ready
Prepare Socratic Seminar questions
Prepare Independent Activity questions
Prepare Essay prompt (assessment)

Materials
Documentary RiP Remix Manifesto
Projector (audio/visual)
Computer/iPad to stream video
Discussion questions
Socratic Seminar questions
Essay prompt

Resources
http://courses.cs.vt.edu/professionalism/Copyrights.Patents/Multimedia.Copyright
.html
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/media_law_prof_blog/2012/03/mashups-and-
copyright.html
http://blog.rocketlawyer.com/mashups-and-sampling-whats-fair-use-97506
http://www.arsny.com/basics.html
http://creativecommons.org/about
http://www.economist.com/node/2592996
http://www.wipo.int/about-ip/en/
Guided Instruction
1) Watch documentary RiP Remix Manifesto (take notes)
Homework: Watch documentary again at home and take notes of direct
quotes from the documentary for concrete details.

2) Discuss Vocabulary
Creative commons
Fair Use
Intellectual Property

3) Research websites about to find concrete details that can be used for the Socratic
Seminar and essay assessment.

3) Socratic Seminar Discussing the Documentary and the Manifesto in the
documentary

A Remixers Manifesto
1. Culture always builds on the past
2. The past always tries to control the future
3. Our future is becoming less free
4. To build free societies you must limit the control of the past.

How does the movie explain how copyright law relates to each of the statements
above? Do you agree or disagree with each statement? Give examples from the
movie for each statement.



Independent Activity
How did the Internet change the view on copyright law?

The documentary refers to copyRIGHT side and the copyLEFT side. How does the
documentary define these two terms?

Is the DJ Girl Talk violating copyright laws with his mashups?

Am I breaking copyright law by showing you this movie in the classroom? Why
would I be, or not be breaking the law? Explain in terms of creative commons and
fair use.


Assessment
Choose one of the four statements in the Manifesto. Using your notes from the
documentary, the Socratic Seminar, and the independent activity questions, develop
an argument whether you agree or disagree with the statement in terms of
copyright law, intellectual property, freedom of expression, and creativity. Use
references from the documentary and other resources discussing copyright law to
support your argument.