Copyright

This was great information to learn about copyright issues. I never really took them too seriously, but I decided to be more careful about it in the classroom. Thankfully, the fair use policy gives us a lot more leeway than other people. I never thought twice about using whatever music I wanted to in slide shows. My students are creating a video yearbook that will be sold to parents, this time we're using www.freeplaymusic.com to find our music. This site has some a huge selection of copyright free instrumental music and sound effects. The search feature allows you to get really specific results. The kids have really responded to this because we can use cool hip hop beats in our slide show and I don't have to worry about offensive language. This was a great time to learn about copyright issues because they didn't understand why we couldn't use music they listen to on the radio.

I'm also thankful for copyright laws because they protect me as a photographer from others stealing my images. A new trend in the wedding world is for brides to demand their "digital negatives." This would mean that a photographer would fork over a copyright release and all of the files to the couple and allow them to make prints and albums on their own. I hate this idea because once you hand over your work to someone else to produce the final product you sacrafice quality. I haven't been able to do this yet, but I've lost a lot of business because I don't. I'm still on the fence if I should give someone else the rights to my images.