Intellectual Property no Jutsu: Copywrongs, Fair Use, and Naruto v. Slater

Move to slide 9 and ask students if they’ve heard the phrase on the slide before (“information wants to be free”). Move to slide 10 and have students read the full quote with the phrase in context: “On the one hand, information wants to be expensive because it’s so valuable. The right information in the right place just changes your life. On the other hand, information wants to be free because the cost of getting it out is getting lower and lower all the time. So you have these two fighting against each other.”

Use the Think-Pair-Share instructional strategy to have students take a few minutes to think about and reflect in writing on the prompt shown: “Thinking about the quote and what you have learned so far, what do you think ‘information wants to be free’ means in its full context?”

Once students have had time to write down their thoughts, have them find a partner and share with each other.

Next, invite students to share out what they discussed in their pairs. Move to slide 11 and reference the slide to clarify what quote originator Stuart Brand was discussing at the time.

Move to slide 12 to show students a message that may look familiar. Ask students if they have ever seen this image or one like it. Supply the term “DMCA takedown” if students don’t come up with it first. Tell students that DMCA stands for Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Help students understand that this message—one they’ve likely come across before in different forms—is an example of legal protection and an attempt to restrict content used without permission. This can happen when a person or corporation finds copyrighted media they own, like a song, movie, or other intellectual property, uploaded to a website like YouTube. The person or corporation affected files a DMCA takedown, and the website removes the content. 

Move to slide 13 and provide the QR code or link to your Mentimeter word cloud with students. Ask students to respond to the prompt on the slide: “What counts as intellectual property?”

Give students time to respond. Move to slide 14 and explain to students that intellectual property is any creation—inventions, written works, art, music, etc.—that began as an idea; you can’t copyright a feeling, but you can protect a tangible version like a song, design, or article. Review the examples on the slide. Have students form groups of 3–4 to discuss which words in the word cloud might or might not be intellectual property.

Once students have discussed in their groups, ask them to share out their thoughts.

Move to slide 15. Remind students that that the personal logo they created earlier is considered intellectual property. Ask students what else they’ve created recently that might be considered intellectual property. Then ask them if they’ve used or transformed something created by someone else (like a drawing or photograph).

Have students discuss with their same small groups their responses to these questions. Invite students to share their thoughts with the whole class.

Move to slide 16 and begin to define copyright with students. Review the eight categories of copyrightable work on the slide:

1. Literary

2. Musical

3. Dramatic

4. Choreographic

5. Visual art 

6. Film

7. Architecture

8. Sound

Point out which of these categories encompass the work your club or class most often works with. Consider providing different examples of such works to help them understand how the concepts you’ve been working with so far can apply to them as club members.

Move to slide 17 and tell students that copyright protects all original works equally, regardless of quality or purpose. Reiterate that, by this principle, they legally own all the work they create in your club and for school.

Move to slide 18 and ask students to take out a piece of paper. Review the Sketchnotes strategy and invite students to sketch notes about the upcoming video, both taking notes and visually enhancing ideas with lines, shapes, dots, arrows, colors, diagrams, etc. Encourage them to focus on the key points and main ideas.

Move to slide 19. Play the video on the slide for students: Copyright, Exceptions, and Fair Use: Crash Course Intellectual Property #3.

Once they have watched the video, encourage students to take a few minutes to look over their notes to add final thoughts or embellish existing sketches. 

Move to slide 20. Invite students to respond at the bottom of their notes to the question on the slide: “What piece of knowledge do you think is or will be most useful to you?”