Case+20+-+Mr.+T's+Unease

Scenario: Union High School's 10th grade US History teacher, Mr. Martin is planning on having the school's Technology/Media coordinator Mr. Trupiano guest speak/teach for a week on the rise of television during the 1950's as a part of their chapters on post WWll US history. Mr. Trupiano has chosen DVD's of popular shows of the 50's and will show some full episodes of shows such as 'The Honeymooners' and 'Twilight Zone' in class. Additionally Mr. Trupiano will hand out portions of certain scripts as well as some of his own observations about the programs and their social context. These scripts and observations will include quotes from period sources (i.e. TV guide) and more recent books. Commentary: Mr. T. has made sure that the portions of the scripts were short enough not to be perceived as trying to distribute copies of an author's work for free. He also labelled them with the name of school, course and instructor(s). All of the use of such media in this educational context including DVD viewing falls within the Fair Use parameters. He has elected to not copyright his own material because, true to form, he is overcommitted and didn't have time. However, he did attribute quotes from other sources. Philosophically, he disputes the need to copyright his own material because he regards them as parenthetical transliterations of discussions and observations in the class. However, he occasionally loses sleep at night as to whether or not a student may try to plagiarize his material, and on what legal footing this would leave him if he ever does decide to publish this material.