Thanks, everybody. I'll be here all week. Try the veal.
Seriously though, in Monday, September 19th's, we discussed copyright and fair use laws. While I did know a little about copyright laws, I had no real handle on what "fair use" was. After the class discussed fair use laws for a lengthy period of time, I feel as though I have my own, working definition on fair use laws: "Laws for idiots." While this may sound harsh, the class discussion focused mainly on what and what is not fair use - and most of what is not fair use seems pretty reasonable. For example, I used an example in class of a Ninth Circuit court's decision to uphold a ruling that didn't allow a publishing company to publish a book that "parodied" the beloved children's book The Cat in the Hat, but poked fun of the O.J. Simpson double homicide murder trial. While this may seem incredibly silly - especially considering there is very little correlation between Dr. Seuss and O.J. Simpson - it also appears harmless; this is, in fact, not the case. Apparently, the fair use laws define a "parody" as allowable only if the parody is poking fun at the original work or author. As stated above, there is no real connection between Suess and Simpson. This is distinctly what I'm referring to when I saw fair use laws are "laws for idiots;" who would want to use The Cat in the Hat to make fun of O.J. Simpson? Even if one did feel that it made sense (which, obviously, to me it does not), what defense could you even use for your case? For that matter, what case could you make that your book should legally be published? Clearly, a book that has nothing to do with the author or original work, but uses the author's/work's iconic make-up (in this case, the widely known writing style of Dr. Seuss) can't be justified to be printed for a profit. I'm not saying that someone couldn't take a popular song or poem and reconstruct to make fun of a friend, but to openly sell it for profit seems pretty brainless.
All that aside, we did begin to discuss Microsoft Excel in regards to creating our grade books. I feel pretty at home with Excel; I was actually taught fundamental concepts of Excel when I was in 8th grade math. From there, I went to a technical high school for Computer Information Technology, which, in addition to computer networking and programming, did involve learning a fair amount of the Microsoft Office suite. I'm actually kind of excited to do this project.
Oh! One final note: the class went on bit of a tangent about educating. This was incredible; anytime I can listen to a teacher discuss teaching and how they approach it, I'm appreciative.
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