Copyleft in the 21st Century
Moderator:  Joanne Beltramini

Shared Notes
Feeling confused about copyright, intellectual property, and fair dealing?  Do you want to be a responsible user of media and information?  Then the Creative Commons--sometimes known as copyleft--is the answer! 

Copyleft is a license that permits people to freely copy, modify and redistribute works as long as they do not keep others from also having the right to freely copy, modify and redistribute.

Note:  In Canada we use the term "fair dealing".  "Fair use" is the terminology used in the United States.

Food for thought?

  • Do your students know how to search for images that belong to the Creative Commons?
  • Do they know how to attribute the photo?
  • What should an attribution look like?  For elementary students?  Middle years/high school?  Should there be a difference?
  • Do you students give credit for information found in a Tweet, blog, etc?
  • Have you shown your students how to use an online citation generator?
  • Today's students are not just consumers of information; they are creators.  Do they know that they an license their work through the Creative Commons?
  • Other questions?