How does copyright law affect your use of technology in the classroom?

 COPYRIGHT....IT'S THE LAW

What is the reasoning behind copyright?  Without copyright anybody can take ownership of anything that has been created.  Copyright is a protection for literary works, movies, music, sound recordings, paintings, photographs, the list goes on.  It's protection ranks from commercial reproduction and financial loss for the creators.  Who does it applies to?  It applies equally to everyone that uses anything that has been created.  Copyright Act 1976 emphasizes the right of "fair use" for reasons like teaching and making copies for classroom use.  There are four criteria that must be present for a material to fall under the "fair use" concept.

1. The nature of the reproduction use is for education.
2. The nature of the copyright work:literary fiction, high level analysis, works of art.
3. The quantity of work used: 3% used is a safe amount within fair use.  More than 10% can be uncertain.
4. Will it reduce creators ability to profit from it.

Not everything falls  under the protection of the copyright law.  Public domain are for the materials that are ineligible for copyright protection or their copyright's have been expired.  This information is fair use for teachers and students to use.
American classrooms has been affected because major media companies have used the power of the courtroom to seize such use like record labels and movie productions.  For a teacher this can be confusing of their rights and responsibilities in the use of copyright materials.  With this misinformation a teacher will be apprehensive in using digital media as an instructional tool.  Students education in the 21st century will be short change by not being media literate in this digital world and teachers not keeping their class innovated in their content knowledge because of concerns of the copyright violations.