Copyright Issues

I also agree that realizing citing the author does not get you off the hook is an important point to remember (1). The fact that works are protected from their creation until 70 years after the author's death makes things a little difficult to use fairly off of the web (2). It seems like, as sort of a general rule, if you are not trying to make money off of your use of someone else's work, you're probably okay using that work in your own (3). You definitely have to remember and remind students about the Golden Rule of Copyrighting (4). It's very interesting to me that copyright applies to unpublished works as well (5).

I agree that I am not quite sure how I would handle a student infringing on copyright. I think I would probably handle it as plagiarism (give the student a zero for the assignment and report them to the administration). The tricky part is that the student has to be informed of copyright rules, and I don't think schools do a very good job of that. They definitely focus more on plagiarism, and even if you cite the author, you could still infringe on copyright.

A big issue for me with copyright is that the science teachers in my placement school use each others' materials all the time. I have already received other teachers' materials and witnessed my teacher accepting materials from others. My teacher has also told me she uses materials from teachers in other schools and divisions. All of these materials are given with the author's original consent, but the way material passes from teacher to teacher, I know the original author is not receiving credit or giving permission to each teacher who has it, to use their material.