NCVPS Copyright Activity Lesson

1. Creating Your
PowerPoint
Presentation
5th Country – “All About” Country Project
Laura Epting – Intellectual Property, Copyright, Fair Use - Lessons Learned Application Activity

2. This week you will be using the Media Center
resources to gather facts and pictures about the
country you have chosen to research.
You can use these resources to gather facts and data:
• Media Center books
• School approved Internet websites
Before we begin, let’s review the importance of not simply
“copying and pasting” facts or pictures into your Powerpoint
without properly showing where you found the information you are
using.

3. Copyright Laws protect a person’s
original creations.
If I take a picture, draw a map, write a paper, write an
article, etc. and it is published in a book or loaded onto the
internet, I am the owner of that document.
It is against Copyright Laws for you to simply copy and
paste exactly what you see into your presentation without
citing where you found it (give the author credit).
Anytime you see the copyright symbol, be sure to cite the
work!

4. In your research, you must tell (4) foods that people typically eat in
the country you have chosen.
Let’s say you do a Google Search for “popular foods people eat in
Costa Rica.”
Several websites pop up and you double click on the first one.
This website comes up
and it has lots of great
information and
pictures you can use in
your Powerpoint
project.

5. Scroll down to the bottom of the page. What do you see?
You know that any pictures you copy from this site and paste into
your Powerpoint must be cited (you must say where they came
from so you are giving the author credit for the work).
Copy the website address in the browser bar and paste it beside or
under the picture.

6. http://www.vivacostarica.com/costa-rica-information/costa-rica-food.html
You have now “cited” or
given credit to the source
from which you found the
picture.
Do not simply copy and paste text just like it is when you find it in a
website or in a book.
Put it in your own words!

7. Let’s Practice…
On the website it said…
To generalize a Costa Rican
meal, one would certainly
have to talk about black
beans and rice (gallo pinto).
This simple, standard dish,
often referred to as comida
tipica, is the backbone of
Costa Rican cuisine.
Put it in your own words…
A very popular dish that people
like to eat in Costa Rica is called
Gallo Pinto. Gallo Pinto is black
beans and rice. In Spanish
people say it is a comida tipica
because that means it is a dish
that you might find at someone’s
house very often.
If you copy the words exactly like the way you found them in your
research, that is called “plagiarism” and it’s against the law.

8. Having the internet gives us access to lots of wonderful
resources. However, be careful how you use what you find.
We talked about making sure you give the author credit for
what you use (cite) but be careful how you use what you find.
There are laws that protect the author of what you find. You are
allowed to use the pictures you find in your Powerpoint because of
something called…
Transformativeness

9. The definition of Transformativeness is “When a user of copyrighted
materials adds value, or repurposes materials for a use different from
which it was originally intended”
Source: Joyce Valenza, School Library Journal
That is a fancy way of saying you are taking something that somebody else created and using
it in a different way then they did when they originally made it.
For example:
You are studying alliteration in your poetry unit. Your teacher has a poetry book she bought at
the local book store and it contains many different examples of poems.
The author of the poem book created it to show examples of different kinds of poems.
Your teacher finds one poem in the book that is a great example of alliteration. She makes a
copy of the poem and passes it out to everyone in the class to read with a partner.
Your teacher has now “transformed” (changed) the purpose for which the book/that
poem was originally created by the author. That’s “Transformativeness.”

10. Why is the teacher allowed to do
this with somebody else’s work?
• She is using it in a classroom setting for educational purposes.
• She is not copying it to send home with you.
• She is not copying it and trying to make money from it.
• She did not copy the whole book; only a small portion of it.
• It doesn’t say anywhere in the book that you can’t make
copies of the poem. (some books say “you can’t make any
copies!)
• There is a benefit to others by her making the copies (the
benefit is it is helping you learn at school.

11. Remember:
• If you aren’t sure a picture belongs to someone else, always cite it.
• Put the information you find in your own words!
• Always check a book to see if it says anywhere on the
front/back/inside cover that you can’t copy it.
• Be sure you are using the resource for educational purposes.
http://all-free-download.com/free-vector/download/thumbs_up_star_312288.html