Artifact 3: Group Copyright and Fair Use Case Study

Executive Summaries

The Copyright and Fair Use Case Study was created in the ETEC 5373: Designing Websites course. This assignment helped me gain a better understanding of what copyright is and isn't. It also allowed me the opportunity to explore various examples of situations where different copyright rules might come into play. During this assignment, I worked in a group of four people including Jamie Gonnerman, Jennifer Main, Courtney Patterson, and myself. We all come from teacher backgrounds and each of us were able to add and edit the document as needed. The project was completed in the Spring 2022 semester between the months of January and May.

To complete the case study, our group first divided up who would view each image and complete the copyright requirements based on what was viewed. For my portion, I looked at the image called Tug of War. This photo showed several children playing tug of war and their faces were clearly visible. I stated in the case study that in order to use this photo on a website, written permission would need to be granted by each parent. The others in my group completed similar sections in our case study and we all worked on the intro, outro, and appendixes together. The case study proved that it's important to be aware of copyright law and fair use guidelines. We also made a point that if someone is unsure if something falls under fair use guidelines, it's their responsibility to find out.

Personal Reflections

While designing websites, there's a lot that goes into it. It's more than just putting pages on the website and starting a blog. When moving forward, I know that considering copyright law is crucial. Just because an image is on the Internet doesn't mean it's available to use for anyone. Copyright law is designed to protect the work of others and while building out websites, I know how important it is to not use an image or graphic unless I seek permission or know it fall under the category of fair use.

This case study helped provide me the opportunity to collaborate with others who were also working on building out their own websites. Being able to share ideas and to meet with each other helped me to work on my communication and time management skills. Also, getting to see the images the others in my group were evaluating in regards to copyright law helped me to gain a better understanding of when permission should be asked for and when it falls under the Creative Commons license. Our group took our time to not only type out each of our sections, but discussed our thoughts with each other in great detail.