My Copyright Action Plan

In reading the article “Reproduction of Copyrighted Works by Educators and Librarians” (http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ21.pdf), I discovered many things I did not know before about copyright laws and how they apply to educators. It was surprising to hear what is and is not legal as far as teachers using copyrighted material.
One thing that I learned is that teachers may only make one copy of certain things, such as a chapter or picture from a book, a newspaper article, a short story, or poem. I guess I just never saw much difference between making 1 copy and making 20! However, a good alternative that I can do in my classroom is to make my own notes from something in a book, using my own words and a few of my own ideas. Then I can make as many copies as I want of my own notes and the students can use that for reference or homework.
Another thing I learned is that music can be copied in excerpts to be used as examples, but copying an entire work is prohibited, with a few exceptions. Along those lines, it is illegal to copy music that is to be used for a performance. However, something I can do instead is to find music that is no longer under copyright laws because of the time elapsed since the composer’s death. Another alternative is to simply use excerpts, because, when teaching musical styles or concepts, generally and excerpt is all that is necessary.
I also discovered the necessity of copyrighting my own work if I do not want it to be used by others without giving me credit. As an educator, I understand how helpful it is to share my work with other teachers, and for them to do the same for me. However, if you work really hard on something, you DO deserve the rights to it. This doesn’t mean you can’t share it, it simply means that you will be credited for your efforts.