Welcome to Rethinking Copyright! My name is Charvi Gopal, and this website is one of the products of my Honors Thesis project on copyright and American K-12 education. (This website stems from my research for this paper.)

My Honors Thesis project began as a way for me to learn about a ubiquitous legal concept that I knew surprisingly little about. As I researched further, I found that the intersection between copyright and American K-12 education was not explored enough in my sources and existing sources indicated a need for the strengthening of copyright lessons in American K-12 schools. As I conducted primary research in a high school and wrote thesis drafts, I realized that copyright is a reflection of fascinating bigger processes in our world.

I believe that the most interesting part of my project is that it lies at the intersection of debates about law, technology and education. Since copyright is a legal concept (that is even mentioned in Article 8, Section 8, Clause 8 of the U.S. Constitution), it is inevitably connected with larger debates about democracy itself. At the same time, there are lessons to be learned about the technologies involved and the ways educators approach copyright. At its heart, copyright concerns the nature of creation and innovation. This makes copyright a foundation on which rich discussions can be held at schools. I have created this website to spread awareness about this pervasive topic among school students and teachers.

This website is divided into three parts. "What is copyright?" contains resources that explain the basics of copyright, fair use, and movements such as Creative Commons. "Resources for Teachers" is an attempt to shed more light on aspects of copyright law that are relevant for teachers and to provide ideas for teaching copyright in classrooms. "Copyright Around Us" contains a variety of examples from the real world to elaborate on the practical implications of knowing about copyright. Since this page relies on examples from everyday events, it will continue to be a work in progress. If you have suggestions for additions to "Copyright Around Us," please use this form to write to me. For feedback on the website in general, please use this form.

As you browse this website, I encourage you to reflect on whether there is a right position of the balance between incentives for creators and access for users. Has that position been achieved by our current copyright system?

Before you browse the other sections, you might watch this Crash Course video that alludes to the importance of educating ourselves about intellectual property and copyright:

(Note: Copyright lies under the umbrella of intellectual property (IP) law. In many of the resources in this website, IP and copyright are used interchangeably. While copyright is related to other IP concepts such as patents and trademarks, my focus on this website will be copyright.)