I feel that it is fair to have restrictions on things. It is not fair for someone to take someone else's work, and not give them credit for what they have done. I thought that only being allowed to use 30 seconds of the song for the project was hard, but i think it is a fair amount of time knowing that there is only about an average of 3-4 minutes in a song.

I agree with what many of you have said about 30 seconds not being long enough to get the meaning of some of the songs across. Many songs, such as the ones we are using in class right now, can be powerul teaching tools. If you chop the song down to 30 seconds, you can lose alot of the meaning in the song. I think that as long is the song is properly cited, has been legally acquired, and is being used for educational purposes only that it should not be a problem. People listen to music everyday for recreational purposes so why shouldn't they be able to listen to it in the classroom for educational purposes?

Bridget's Response

I actually had no idea about a couple things that this group told us. I didn't know that if I was giving a presentation, I could only use 30 seconds from a song. It doesn't make sense to me though because I have never really had any teacher go over this with us so I always thought we could use the whole song. Either way, I think that the copyright laws are somewhat fair. I think that some of the laws are a bit harsh because sometimes people don't even know that they're breaking the law when they are. If they really want to enfore this, they should advertise it more someway or inform the public more so they know exactly what is legal and what is not.

copyright laws

I was glad that we went over copyrights and fair use laws, because I have been breaking those laws for years without knowing it. If we hadn't gone over it in class, I probably would have continued to break those laws as an educator without even knowing they existed. I think that the laws are there for a good reason and purpose, however I think they were a little too picky and I think that some of them are too small (i.e. Songs, Videos).

Brianne's Response

Like many other I have mixed thoughts about the 30 sec per song. I think it can be hard to cut a song to thirty seconds without getting your complete point/message across. I also believe that there are many people who break this law because they do not even realize it exists.

Megan's Reply

I agree with Katlyn. Listening to thirty seconds of a song does not allow you to fully understand the underlying meaning of the song. However, it is unfair to the songwriter/producer for people to take their hard work as their own.

Megan's Response

I am on both sides of the argument. I think that the copyright guidelines are fair. There needs to be some rules over what you can and can not use in order to guard the creater. On the other hand, with strict guidelines, sometimes it becomes perplexing on what you can and can not use. I'm sure that in the past, most everyone has violated a guideline without even being aware of it. Looking at the fine print of the copyright and fair use guidelines handout, it seems that these strict guidelines can limit teachers on what they can use in the classroom. For example, teachers are only allowed to make copies for classes a number amount of times.