#HonorCopyright: Copyright Basics

Let’s Learn About Homeschool Copyright Basics

How much do you know about copyright law? The dos and don’ts of copyright can be pretty confusing, and it just makes navigating the homeschool arena a little bit trickier. But the basics of copyright law are not so difficult that we can’t learn them–the same way we learn algebra or grammar as we teach our children. We are homeschool moms. Learning is what we do best!

How much do you already know about copyright?

There’s a fun quiz you can take over at Copyright for Homeschoolers that will give you a good place to start. After you’ve tried your hand at the quiz and browsed the rest of the site, here’s  a list of some other great resources for you.

• When Frugal is Illegal: Here’s How to Avoid the Copyright Trap
• US Copyright Office
• Types of Content Infringements
• Internet Piracy – different places where it happens
• Theft by Any Other Name
• Copyright Myths

Also, read up on the  guidelines for copyright and fair use in the classroom. Don’t forget to check what is not included in fair use and a good list of what does count as fair use in a classroom or home. (Oh, also, check out the TEACH act.)

That’s a lot of reading, but it’s important that we study the copyright laws and learn how to abide by them.

So how about some basic guidelines?

There are many factors to consider, but across the board there are some pretty basic guidelines to follow. While curriculum shopping and lesson planning, here are some things to keep in mind:

• Any item that is sold as a consumable (worksheets, workbooks, etc.) should be purchased for each child and not reproduced.
• Any item that comes with reproducible pages for you copy out of the book for your children can be copied and used for all of your children.
• When you buy an item on compact disc, you can make a digital copy for yourself, but you may not make copies for others (or give away or sell your disc while you still have and use the digital copy).

Those are some general, rule of thumb guidelines to get you started. However, it might not always be that clear. Over the course of the week, we will be diving into the various areas of copyright law together. Join us tomorrow as we dig into rules of copyright law for freebies.

To find more information, this week’s schedule of events, or the pledge, take a few minutes to stop by the main #honorcopyright page.

More questions? Leave them here: