Extra Credit Blog Post

According to Copyright Alliance.org, fair use is defined as: 

   "Fair use is an affirmative defense that can be raised in response to claims by a copyright owner that a person is infringing a copyright. Fair use permits a party to use a copyrighted work without the copyright owner’s permission for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research. Copyright law does establish four factors that must be considered in deciding whether a use constitutes a fair use. These factors are:

1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for non-profit educational purposes.
   
   
2. The nature of the copyrighted work.
   
   
3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

Appropriation is essentially when someone takes the work of another artist with the intention of making it their own in a completely new form, idea, etc., but the finished work that was built on contained too much of the original idea to be grounds. for any of the four factors that constitute fair use. A controversial lawsuit in the music industry during the middle of the 1990s is a moment in history illustrating the rules of fair use and appropriation. 2 Live Crew was sued by Acuff-Rose Music, Inc.with a claim of copyright infringement, and 2 Live Crew lost the lawsuit. The court found that the song created by 2 Live Crew was found unfair in accordance with the first of the four factors. In the same decade in the same genre of music, the rap scene saw another case of copyright infringement with Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby," which was found to contain too much of the original content of Queen and David Bowie's hit collab "Under Pressure." Both are absolute jams. 

In terms of fair use, the first thing that comes to mind was AJ's parody for the digital composition project. She created a music video and wrote a parody over The Notorious B.I.G.'s song and she gave credit to the authors' content that she used to create her project. After doing research on my second example, I wanted to talk about Weird Al Yankovic. He is a well-known musical artist famous for his comedic rewrites and parodies of popular songs, one being Amish Paradise, his take of the song Gangster Paradise by Coolio. Over time, the rules of fair use have slowly shifted in favor of the appropriator, for in this situation, Yankovic doesn't legally have to seek out permission to parody an artist's song, however, he actually asks for it anyway. Snaps for our guy.  Under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law, Yankovic and other parodists don't need permission for original artists to satirize their work, as long as royalties are paid. So, there is still a catch. 

Hobbs suggested a strategy to normalize, practice, and get students acquainted with the process of giving credit to those who deserve it and why it is important. The suggestion about assigning students to do a comparison-contrast essay involving two YouTube videos that demonstrate proper etiquette regarding fair use and one that doesn't. 

Academic Honesty will be a prioritized expectation in the learning environment my class and I create, and it is important to provide real-life examples to demonstrate relevancy (and evidence), explain the potential consequences of engaging in academic dishonesty, and celebrate the works of those we appreciate and come to terms with the significance of their works in our lives. It is important that students understand the consequences of appropriation misconduct, fair use guidelines, and copyright infringement not just within the borders of the school, but also out in the "real world."