Ethical dilemma –
Copyright imagery
In my subject area (Art Design) taking and
using your own imagery/photographs is hugely important. Borrowing or using
other people’s imagery is a breach of copyright.
About 5 years ago I had a student who was
struggling to source imagery for her design folio. After the holidays she
returned to school and had the most amazing photo on her folio board, I knew
instantly that it wasn’t her image, but gave her the opportunity to explain the
image. I asked her where the image had come from, and she went into a full
blown explanation of how she’d gone on a massive walk, in the far north with a
cousin, and had stumbled across the beach with the most beautiful ship wreck.
Having lived in the North all of my life I had never known this beach to exist.
I went back to my office and googled ‘ship wreck on beach’, sure enough the
below picture appeared, the same photo on her folio board, which turned out to
be the most famous beach in Greece, Shipwreck beach, Zathinthos. Unfortunately
for the student, one of my colleagues at the time was Greek and she confirmed
my suspicions.
In the above scenario, we resolved the issue amicably
with a quick chat in the office and a reminder about the importance of sourcing
our own images and the implications for owner of the original image.
This issue usually comes up when a student is
not organised in taking their own images, or they choose a topic that is beyond
their limits. In recent years we have had to reinforce the importance of
sourcing your own images, students have signed an agreement that they will not
misappropriate other people’s images.
Students are also taught about the usage
rights on images online such as google searches. Reinforcing the law and
ethical implications of using other people’s imagery, even though we are only
using the imagery for NCEA school work, the work could potentially be used on
school and NZQA websites, or as exemplars between schools and curriculum focus
groups. As teachers we should be making our students aware of copyright issues
so that when they leave school they know the laws of art copyright and their rights
with their own imagery.
These laws have been put in place to protect the artist, photographers
and designers that have created them, as everybody knows these people take time
out of their lives to be creative and create income and jobs for themselves and
if someone comes along and takes something without asking it is not right.
What we do encourage is using the internet image search for sourcing
ideas as these are not protected by copyright. Our students are encouraged to
source ideas via Pinterest and combine or merge multiple ideas to make them
their own. This is also completed via the use of artist models a requirement of
some NCEA standards, however students are taught to personalise the ideas, focusing
on the composition of design elements rather than creating a direct copy of the
image or artwork.
The NZ Teachers Council
Code of Ethics states that “Teachers are vested by the public with trust and
responsibility, together with an expectation that they will help prepare
students for life in society in the broadest sense.” Hence, it is our
responsibility to educate and model to our students these positive values which
are widely accepted in society and encourage our learners to apply them and
critically appreciate their significance.
References
https://educationcouncil.org.nz/content/code-of-ethics-certificated-teachers-0
Education Council. (n.d). The
Education Council Code of Ethics for Certificated Teachers. Retrieved
from https://educationcouncil.org.nz/content/code-of-ethics-certificated-teachers-0
Hall, A. (2001). What ought I
to do, all things considered? An approach to the exploration of ethical problems
by teachers. Paper presented at the IIPE Conference, Brisbane. Retrieved
from http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Culture/Developing-leaders/What-Ought-I-to-Do-All-Things-Considered-An-Approach-to-the-Exploration-of-Ethical-Problems-by-Teachers
I with you on this issue, this something that keeps cropping up for me as well. I try to encourage as much as possible to get the students to use their own imagery which is not always that easy. Students sometimes go for the easiest route rather than do all the work for themselves. Feeling your pain!!! We nearly to the end of the course.
ReplyDeleteCan students use other people's images in their work as long as it is accredited (and approved for general use, of course)? It is something we rarely worry about in Science, except when they are researching, but even then, we don't enforce any form of copyright checks. Now I wonder if we should do!
ReplyDeletein the junior school if the images are just being used within the classroom i think it would be OK to use borrowed images, however if they had the potential to be used as an exemplar, posted on a blog, or used in a science fair project i would think it would have to be their own. Hard in some cases like yours eh Nick.
ReplyDelete