Composition and Copyright

Drawing on connections between legal developments, new media technologies, and educational practice, Composition and Copyright examines how copyright law is currently influencing processes of teaching and writing within the university, particularly in the dynamic contexts of increasing digital literacy, new media, and Internet writing. Contributors explore the law's theoretical premises, applications to writing classrooms, and the larger effects of copyright law on culture and literacy. Central to the volume is the question of what may constitute "infringement" or "fair use," and how the very definitions of these terms may permit or prohibit specific text-making activities. The essays cover a range of subjects, from students' appropriations of Internet images to using blogs in the classroom to the efforts by universities to claim legal ownership of professors' teaching and research materials. As new technologies and legislation are overturning traditional notions of intellectual property, this volume offers ways to navigate the issues in terms of pedagogy, research, and creating new media texts within the current legal framework.

Introduction Steve Westbrook I Defining Cases and Contexts: Copyright, Digital Ethics, and Composition Studies 1. Property, Theft, Piracy: Rhetoric and Regulation in MGM Studios v. Grokster Jessica Reyman 2. Fair Use and the Vulnerability of Criticism on the Internet Sohui Lee 3. "Some Rights Reserved": Weblogs with Creative Commons Licenses Clancy Ratliff 4. In Defense of Obfuscation: Questioning Open Source and a New Perspective on Teaching Digital Literacy in the Writing Classroom Brian D. Ballentine II Teaching the Conflicts: Copyright Law in Pedagogical Theory and Practice 5. A Refrain of Costly Fires: Visual Rhetoric, Writing Pedagogy, and Copyright Law Steve Westbrook 6. Beyond the Wake-up Call: Learning What Students Know about Copyright Lisa Dush 7. Ideas Toward a Fair Use Heuristic: Visual Rhetoric and Compositiont Martine Courant Rife 8. Blogging Down: Copyright Law and Blogs in the Classroom TyAnna K. Herrington III Concluding Polemics: Changing the Future of Composition and Copyright 9. The (Re)Birth of the Composer John Logie 10. Own Your Rights: Know When Your University Can Claim Ownership of Your Work Jeffrey R. Galin List of Contributors Index