Creative Commons

I had always known that copyright laws were confusing, but the more I seem to learn, the more confusing and complex they get.  When you download an item, do you have the right to have that item? Do you have the right to share that item? Edit that item?  The copyright law allows for fair use of copyright material.  While watching the video "The Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education" Peter Jaszi, a Law Professor at American University said, "What constitutes "fair use" depends on the situation".  I couldn't have said it better myself.   Teacher can sometimes use certain things for particular educational purposes.  So many regulations and exceptions.  However, Creative Commons helps the average person understand a little better of what is acceptable to do with the image or text.

I was ecstatic to learn (yes, I'm easy to please) that in Firefox, there is a pull-down menu of search engines and one of them is Creative Commons! In Science we are learning about Earthquakes.  What not better way to understand the impact of an Earthquake than to see a picture.  I decided to search Creative Commons for a picture of the recent earthquake in Haiti.

Original Image: Port-au-Prince,  January 2010, Post-earthquake
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4030/4458418390_96a202a614.jpg
By: Treesftf (Flickr Name)
License Type: Attribution 2.0 Generic License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

Creative Commons is open to the public! I was even able to create a Creative Commons License for my own image!

I'm a teacher.  Even on my honeymoon I'm a teacher.  While on our Safari in Kruger National Park, we came across these two rhinoceros- and the first thing that came to my mind- Symbiosis! What a wonderful example of mutualism.  I could not wait to get back to share with my students.  The birds sitting on top of the Rhinos are eating the bugs and other insects off the rhinos and the rhinos are protecting the birds from predators.

(Click on the picture to take you to the site!)
Original Image "Rhinos- Mutualism"
http://picasaweb.google.com/epstein.dana/SouthAfrica#5575982411129944242
By: Dana Collett
License Type: Released Under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivs License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/