I got a great question about copyright & remixing in storytime from Marisa Conner from Baltimore County Public Library, and I reached out to Common Sense Media’s Merve Lapus to point me to some resources. Here’s the question and response:

Question

Hey Cen,

My husband who is a tech teacher saw our Phyllis’ wonderful “fox say” video and wondered if we had violated music copyright – I love what she did with this and I’m so proud of her but do you know the answer to this?

I see Simon and Shuster is making this song into a book. Just thought I’d better check before her video goes viral!

Let me know.

Marisa

Answer

Hi Cen,

Check out page 7 from our lesson rework, reuse, and remix to see a basic measuring stick for copyright to fair use. That being said, fair use is not as a clear line in the sand as we would like says my copyright lawyer friend, but getting kids to think critically against this framework is a great place to start. I think the video and blog post would fit, and would not draw any issues from the original creators. You give credit to the artist, it’s used for education and kind of a parody, it’s nonprofit, and used in a different way. You hit more than the minimum.

I gotta say, I LOVE the video remake.

Merve Lapus
Sr. Education Program Manager | Common Sense Media

Rework, Reuse, Remix