I’ve turned into the crazy lady who writes letters to the middle school newspaper.
Just as I’ve taught my 12 and 14-year-old kids to spot incorrect apostrophe use and improper use of “their, they’re and there,” my kids know how to spot copyright violations in their middle and high school newspapers. Here’s a clue: it often starts with “Courtesy of Google.com.”
For the past few years, I’ve seen the middle school newspaper credit photos with that phrase, and the high school giving photo credit to the New York Times. Each time I see this I envision a lawyer sending a letter to the paper asking for thousands of dollars per violation. I’m pretty sure the editors didn’t ask permission to include those photos. They used photos from a financial website I write for regularly. I know that this website buys images from major agencies. There’s no way that “photo courtesy of…” is going to cut it if these agencies (known for going after violators) realize a publisher took their photo from a website.
After raging at home to my kids about these horrible violations every time the paper comes out, I finally wrote an email to the newspaper advisors at each school. I offered some (hopefully) constructive advice backed up by links. There’s the link from the blogger who had to hire a lawyer and pay hundreds of dollars to a photo company after she innocently took a photo from, yes, Google.com. I sent a link from the Columbia Journalism Review on copyright. I sent one on fair use from a law firm. I sent the handout from my panel on photo copyright from the 2015 ASJA conference. And I offered to talk to the teacher and journalism classes.
As a journalist, I provide many of my clients with photos and am liable if the photos violate copyright law. These kids are growing up with devices in which they post and share pictures all the time. They should know what copyright is and how using photos without the proper permission is illegal, just as printing someone else’s words in the newspaper without permission is illegal.
I realize that these teachers are not journalists. They’re trying to give the kids some newspaper experience, writing opinion pieces about the merits of Qdoba versus Chipotle burritos, and highlighting the school’s cell phone policy with quotes from teachers and students. The high school paper covers important issues of teen pregnancy, presidential elections, standardized testing, and drug testing of professional athletes. Plus, one columnist offered love lessons from the Bachelor (my favorite line: “The premier of each season has taught me that first impressions mean everything in a relationship. Now I know that I should be wearing a formal gown when meeting a guy, so I’ve invested in about 20 prom dresses.” Don’t worry, that’s fair use. It’s only two lines from the whole article).
While the teachers have not taken me up on my offer to have a real, live journalist give copyright lessons to the journalism classes, they did reply thoughtfully and said they’d look into these issues further. They had a time reprieve as the next issue would only include photos taken by students. The high school teacher said she’s taught them about copyright issues using research from the Student Press Law Center online. She said they only use photos from other sites for commentary, opinion and review, which she believed fell under fair use. Fair use is not clear-cut, however, and I politely disagreed that many of their photos met this threshold.
Sometimes I wonder if I’m taking it too far with the school teacher. I’m not a lawyer, and I’m arguing over photo use that few people will see. But these well-intended advisors are teaching the next generation. And I don’t want these future journalists thinking they can just take any photo they want and give credit to the source, and think that’s okay.