File+Sharing

File sharing is the action of providing access or distributing digitally stored files with others. Files can be shared through many different medians. They can be shared through a variety of medians (i.e. removable drives, network servers, FTP, etc.) Although file sharing is legal, some practices that people commonly participate in are illegal because they violate copyright laws.
 * Description **

**High-Profile Case **

File sharing, particularly through peer-to-peer networks, has been in the spotlight of media the past couple of years. Jammie Thomas-Rasset was fined $1.92 million dollars for infringing the copyright of twenty-four songs through Kazaa, a former peer-topeer sharing network. The mother of four was allegedly sharing 1,700 songs (and was only prosecuted for sharing twenty-four). There are a lot of additional details surrounding this story that can be followed up by you. However, the reason I am calling attention to this lawsuit is the fact that illegal file sharing is a serious offense and children need to be aware of consequences that are associated with such actions. They also need to note that the defendent of this lawsuit was an individual -- not a large corporation or owner of a peer-to-peer sharing network.

**What is the impact of this issue on K-12 schools, educators, and students? ** **File sharing impacts anyone that uses technology to store data. Teachers commonly talk about file sharing in association with plagiarism amongst peers. However, it is important for school districts, school administrators, educators, and students to be aware of the safety and ethics related to file sharing because of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. **

**I am not going to go into great detail about copyright, but if you want to learn more about copyright, feel free to visit Camille Tarner & Kelsea Leppo’s wiki-page about copyright by clicking here. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act crimililazes production of copied material. It also requires hosts (online service providers, internet service providers, and website owners) to comply with requests to remove copyrighted material from their server through legal requests, including cease and desist orders. If they do comply, they can be subject to criminal charges for facilitating availability of the material after being advised that it violates copyright law. **

**Now you may ask yourself, “What does this have to do with education?” The answer, put simply, is everything. It is the role of students to follow safe and legal file sharing practices. It is the role of teachers to teach them about that. School administrators need to make sure their schools’ network is free of copyrighted material and that their students practice safe and legal file sharing practices procedures. As school administrators need to ensure their school network is free of copyrighted material, school districts need to do the same thing. **

**Integrating this topic into Daily Instruction **

**PreK-K** When students are learning to open files from of the schools’ network, you can talk to students about safe file sharing. You should talk about how they should save and rename the file, when necessary, to prevent the file from being overwritten.

**1-3** When students are insert clipart into digital files, you can talk to them about copyright laws and how although there are a lot of files that we can access online, we don’t have permission to use all of them. **3-5** When students are beginning to gather data from websites, you can talk to them about copyright laws and how it is plagiarism if they take content directly from another website. <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">**6-12** <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">When students are beginning to create more digital documents (that cannot be easily checked for plagiarism by teachers), their teachers should instruct them to participate in safe file sharing practices. You can talk to them about password protecting their documents to restrict access from other students. You should also talk to them about saving their files to backup locations because of the unpredictable nature of file sharing networks

**<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">9-12 ** <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">You can talk to students about how they can go about requesting permission to utilize files that they can access online but don’t have permission to use. You should talk to them about how they can construct letters that request owners for use. This would typically require contact via email or snail mail. Use this opportunity to remind them of your school district’s AUP and whether some information may violate that policy.

**<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 14pt;">Additional Links ** <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">**Peer to Peer File Sharing Lesson**  <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 12pt; text-align: left;">A lesson for high school students that has them examine Internet file sharing and how it is affected by copyright law. <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 12pt; text-align: left;">Visit: http://www.teachingcopyright.org/curriculum/hs/4

**<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">OER Commons ** <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 12pt; text-align: left;">Open Educational Resources Commons is a collection of shared open educational resources. The resources can be browsed by subject and grade level. <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 12pt; text-align: left;">Visit: http://www.oercommons.org/ **<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 14pt;">References **

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