Here’s my holiday gift to readers who might need a break from family gatherings, opening of presents, and over-eating. This monthly feature of cartoons looks at the ways that new technologies seize attention from both children and adults, parents and kids. I hope that at least one gets you to smile and, perhaps, a few to laugh aloud and shake your head in amazement at the cartoonist’s genius in capturing the truth of what each of us experiences. Enjoy!
Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice 
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education and commented:
I love humorous cartoons.
Thanks for re-blogging the cartoon post, David.
Larry,
I love and respect your work very much! I’ve been a fan for years and always appreciate your honest take, particularly when it comes to the use of technology in schools.
That said, are you at all concerned about copyright infringement (wherein you’ve posted these cartoons to your blog)? Have you possibly obtained permission to distribute these cartoons globally?
I’m certainly not the copyright police nor expert, but have spent years trying to educate teachers about Fair Use. Am I mistaken in my thinking that posting copyrighted material to an openly accessible blog is NOT Fair Use?
Please teach me if I’m in error!
-Darren
Darren,
I do believe it is Fair Use because I blog without ads, do not take paid subscriptions, and earn not a penny from the blogs. I run a cartoon only once. Also, I make sure that I run cartoons that have the cartoonist’s name (and often date). It is what I did when I taught high school and grad school.
Let me know what you think, Darren.
Again I’m no lawyer, but I think that because you’ve distributed the cartoons beyond the walls of your own classroom, then you may be in violation of copyright and outside the protection of Fair Use.
When teaching Fair Use, we often steer teachers toward Hal Davidson’s time-honored “The Educators’ Lean and Mean No FAT Guide to Fair Use.” You may access a copy here:
http://www.csus.edu/indiv/p/peachj/edte230/copyright/#article
In his Guide, Hal states that “taking things off the Web and using them in projects is OK, but posting them back online is not. You might say it’s like the difference between cutting things out of the newspaper and making copies of the paper to resell. Posting on a protected Intranet, however, is permissible since it’s viewed as remaining inside the classroom community.”
As I’m sure you already know, Stanford is also often considered an authority on copyright. Their entire Copyright & Fair Use website is quite good, although cautiously conservative at times in its explanations. Their page here addresses websites in general:
http://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/website-permissions/websites/
The irony of this entire discussion, however, is that I’m a strong proponent of open access and the Creative Commons. I believe firmly that current copyright law is severely broken and needs significant update. Moreover, I would hate it if you stopped posting these wonderful cartoons just because I’ve written a comment or two!
Keep fighting the fight, Larry.
-Darren
Many thanks, Darren, for the links. And support.
I am also an admirer of Larry’s work but I side with Darren on this. (Note: I’m not an IP lawyer). Intellectual Property is often more about control than profit. The fact that you are not making money on the work is not the determining factor. The creator retains control— profit made or not. Example: The Dave Clark Five, for whatever reason, didn’t release digital versions of their songs for years. Their choice–for whatever reason. Sound of vinyl, order of songs, etc. Their choice. For a fan to post those songs, even without profit, would be…wrong. When you take somebody’s cartoon without asking, you don’t know how much violation is taking place. Maybe they don’t like or support online because it’s killing newspapers. You just don’t know without asking. Say someone, like Mr. Bonzo Smith, said and posted “People like this would love Google Glass and would recommend it to his friends” and shows a screen shot of Larry Cuban’s blog. Bonzo spreads that around. Bonzo doesn’t sell Glass, or get money from his blog. Would you feel like he should have asked permission? It’s the control, not the dough. You can license lots of stuff here: https://cartoonbank.licensestream.com/LicenseStream/Portal/Index.aspx?gclid=CM3826DKvbsCFYlhfgodKF4AhQ There are a lot of instances when Fair Use applies in weird ways. But money isn’t one. Profit is one of the Myths of Fair Use (and only one of the four big factors). Good explanation from the Michigan Library. http://guides.lib.umich.edu/content.php?pid=396670&sid=3248179 When necessary, check wikipedia for images. They’re usually rights free. Not as good as great cartoons, but, there you go.
Everybody keep up the great work!
Thanks, Hall and Darren. I will look at the links.
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