Live Webinar Tomorrow Night: Copyright and Fair Use in the Art World and Classroom

Are you looking for ways to incorporate digital media into your teaching? Don’t understand the rules of online copyright and fair use?

On Wednesday, March 10  at 8:00 PM ET, join PBS Teachers and Classroom 2.0 for a special live webinar that will explore the implications of copyright and fair use laws in the classroom. The seminar will also explore how to share best practices in student media production.

During this event, you will have the chance to hear from and interact with filmmaker Kembrew McLeod, whose film Copyright Criminals recently aired on PBS’s Independent Lens, renowned law professor Peter Jaszi, and media producers and educators Chris Runde and Joe Fatheree.

Also, Annelise Wunderlich, national community engagement and education manager for ITVS, will present film modules and lesson plans based on the film and developed by ITVS Community Classroom.

At the close of the live webinar, you’ll have an opportunity to ask questions and have a better understanding of what kind of tools and resources are available for your classroom or organization.

Bookmark this site and join the live discussion tomorrow at 8:00 PM >>

Tags: educators, hip hop, music, PBS, sampling, teachers

Recent Talkback About Independent Lens

From Stephen Walker’s critical and box office smash Young@Heart to an in-depth look behind the creative and commercial value of musical sampling, this season Independent Lens is rolling out a powerful selection of films that cover a wide range of issues related to the music industry. Check out some of the recent Talkback from viewers about films airing this month.

Young@Heart

“I watched the documentary, Young@Heart, last week and was quite moved. The director has given a great gift to the people of North Hampton and around the world.”
Posted by: Roger Millnitz on January 17, 2010

“I am 51 and hope I have the vitality that these individuals do when I get up there in years. The one song that gets me every time is Fred’s tribute to Bob, ‘Fix You.’ It moves me every time.”
Posted by: Gail on January 17, 2010

“I am in my 70s and I loved this film. The segment where the group did a concert for the jail inmates young enough to be their grandchildren was just so touching to me that it brought tears to my eyes…”
Posted by: Christina on January 18, 2010

View more Talkback and submit your own for Young@Heart >>

Interested in music programs? Learn more about our month-long celebration of music >>

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Tags: hip hop, music, music month, sampling, senior citizens

Copyright Criminals Premiering Tonight on Independent Lens on PBS

“What’s the difference between creative ‘borrowing’ and outright theft? The Independent Lens documentary Copyright Criminals offers a thought-provoking discussion of the subject filtered through a history of hip-hop ‘sampling’ culture.”
- United Features Syndicate

Can you own a sound? As hip-hop rose from the streets of New York to become a multibillion-dollar industry, artists such as Public Enemy and De La Soul began reusing parts of previously recorded music for their songs. But when record company lawyers got involved everything changed. Years before people started downloading and remixing music, hip-hop sampling sparked a debate about copyright, creativity and technological change that still rages today.

Copyright Criminals premieres tonight, January 19, at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS (check local listings).

Learn more about Copyright Criminals and other special Music Month programs >>

Tags: hip hop, music, music month, sampling

COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS Screenings Demystify Hip-Hop Sampling

Kembrew McLeod, co-producer of COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS, answers questions from the audience with Tony Berman of Berman Entertainment and Technology Law, who is featured in the film.

From our first event at the Saratoga Springs Public Library in Saratoga Springs, New York on October 3 to our last two events on October 29 in Charleston, South Carolina and Indiana, Pennsylvania we’ve thrilled audiences with live DJs, hip-hop dancers and fascinating panelists from musicians to lawyers. Co-producer of COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS Kembrew McLeod told us “I feel honored to be part of the Community Cinema program which has allowed the film to be seen far and wide by a diverse range of audiences. Plus, it’s free. Who doesn’t like free?”

For more than 30 years, as hip-hop evolved from the urban streets of New York to its current status as a multibillion-dollar industry, hip-hop performers and producers have been reusing portions of previously recorded music in new, otherwise original compositions. But when lawyers and record companies got involved, what was once referred to as a “borrowed melody” became a “copyright infringement.” Through interviews with many of hip-hop music’s founding figures—like Public Enemy, De La Soul and Digital Underground—along with emerging artists such as audiovisual remixers Eclectic Method, COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS by Benjamin Franzen and Kembrew McLeod illuminates both sides of the debate, from traditional musicians who view sampling as pillaging to those who argue that the practice of borrowing is by no means new nor is it unique to hip-hop or even music: Think of Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s soup cans.

With OVER 50 free screening events from coast to coast audiences were able to sample the flavor of hip-hip and electronic music first-hand from some of the subjects featured in the film. The Philadelphia event featured worldwide DJ sensation based in Philly, RJD2 (RJ Krohn – pictured to the right, on the left). The photo is a TwitPic uploaded live from the event. Our event in Oakland welcomed DJ legend Jeff Chang. Local hip-hop radio DJs hosted events in St. Louis and Seattle. In Seattle, KUBE 93 FM DJ Hyphen who co-hosts “Sunday Night Sound Session” introduced the film. “Sunday Night Sound Session” airs every Sunday night at 10:45 PM. “J. Moore and I offer listeners the newest, dopest hip-hop from all around the country, including local music from our own backyard,” boasts DJ Hyphen. Tune in around the Puget Sound Region or online worldwide. DJ Hypen introduced COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS and left the audience with some things to think about while watching the film.

Read on for more video clips, photos, and community connections.

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Tags: copyright, DJs, hip hop, sampling, wrap-up

Community Cinema Presents COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS in Seattle

KUBE 93 FM is Seattle's #1 Hip Hop and R&B Radio Station

This past Saturday, Community Cinema Seattle presented COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS at the SIFF Cinema at Seattle Center, a 74-acre campus at the north end of downtown home to more than 30 cultural, educational, sports and entertainment organizations.

The film, which looks at sampling in music and who really owns a sound, resonated deeply in a town with so many musical interests. Seattle is the birthplace to grunge but is also one of America’s urban centers where positive hip-hop is drawing a large following (Blue Scholars, Gabriel Teodros and others). Music in Seattle is a true mash-up. We screened COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS in the lecture hall theatre shared by the Seattle Opera, the Pacific Northwest Ballet and the Seattle International Film Festival.

One of Seattle’s foremost hip-hop DJs, DJ Hyphen of KUBE 93 FM, talked to us about a few of the film’s topics in the lobby before the film. He observes, “There is a fine line between borrowing and stealing.”

The film suggests that sampling is similar to other forms of reproduction in art, but DJ Hyphen suggests that because the art – in this case – is hip hop music that the same rules do not apply.

DJ Hypen also introduced the film for the entire audience and left them with a few things to consider while watching the film.

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Tags: DJ Hyphen, KUBE 93 FM, music, sampling, Seattle