An interesting article from Wired magazine about students fighting abuse of copyright law by promoting more use of flexible copyright law and open source alternatives.
One of the really cool aspects of flexible copyright law is that it gives more freedom for teachers to let students learn by RML: Rip, Mix and Learn. Basically this process means a student rips a copy of something, mixes it to give it their own spin, and learns tons through this process of remixing and creation.
An example from the article:
"Pavlosky and other Free Culture leaders are finding clever ways to illustrate the importance of copyright in their daily lives with projects like Undead Art, which challenges students to remix the cult classic Night of the Living Dead, now in the public domain, and turn it into something new -- like a zombie techno video or comic short."
While I'm not a fan of Night of the Living Dead, I am a fan of this idea. Instead of having students learn about writing, or art, or music, have them create. For example, have them rework a famous mystery story into a romance, and learn about both styles of writing in the process. Or have them learn about Roman culture by remixing a popular song so it reflects typical B.C. Roman culture. Or have them learn science by recreating classic experiments with modern twists.
Don't YOU learn more by doing? So will your students. And flexible copyright lets us legally use more of the media available out there for these kinds of projects.
