Learners and teachers of languages are eager to use authentic resources and the Internet appears to be a goldmine in this respect. There is a great temptation to download photos, images, text, music and videos for personal use or for teaching and learning languages. However, in many instances it is not the case that teachers or pupils have the right to do this, as material posted on the Internet is protected by copyright law.
Copyright law is complex and cannot be summed up easily. However, a general principle is that because something is online it is not necessarily free of copyright for teachers or pupils to use as they wish.
Photos and other images are often private property and permission should be sought to download and use them, all the more so if they will be posted online as part of a pupil’s presentation. In any case, it is so easy nowadays for pupils to take digital photos and transfer them to a computer that a project designed to enable this to happen will go a long way to avoiding the temptation of taking photos from the Internet. If a project requires photos of the partner country, use topics, such as daily life, our house, sport and leisure, which will allow partner schools to take photos and post them on eLanguages for others to download and use. You may find copyright free photos available at sites such as Flickr where they have been created under a Creative Commons Licence with certain conditions attached such as they must be used for non-commercial purposes.
Music is not copyright free unless this is specifically stated or it has a Creative Commons Licence, which means it has been explicitly made for copyright-free use. You can use the Internet to search for podsafe music tracks which have been made under the Creative Commons Licence for podcasters to use. Try PodsafeAudio. For pupils using software such as Garageband, installed as standard on Apple Macs, or slideshow software like Photostory3 it is possible to create music quickly and easily within the application, thereby avoiding copyright issues.
Teachers of languages will find useful advice on copyright and many other ICT issues at ICT4LT. Remember, the responsibility lies with you to ensure that copyright law is respected. If in doubt, seek advice or find another solution.
Permissions
In general taking photos of public spaces, streets or parks, is allowed, although discretion is called for: do not take close-ups of strangers, children or property without permission. On other occasions it will be necessary to seek permission for photos, videos or voice recordings. This may happen if pupils are inside private premises such as a shopping precinct or if they wish to photograph individuals. Similarly, if they make voice recordings of individuals they must obtain that individual’s permission to use that recording, especially if will be used in materials to be posted online. In the case of video recordings these principles apply with equal importance.
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