FW: Plagiarism screener gets passing grade in copyright lawsuit

From Ars Technica is this article on a plagiarism screener:

Do students have rights to the material they hand in as class assignments? Is plagiarism detection a form of fair use? These and a number of other intriguing questions were answered in a decision (PDF) handed down by a US District Court in Virginia recently, which threw out a lawsuit filed by students whose school compelled them to use an automated plagiarism detection system.

Plagiarism. Transformative? Fair Use?

What if you disagreed with the terms of service? Should you be forced to comply? A related article on Ars indicates that, at the Plaintiff's school, a score of "0" is recorded if you don't submit your text.

While plagiarism seems bad, is the alternative here--forcing people to submit to a contract from a third party--any better?

copyright video that isn't Disney, sort of

I am not sure how many of you teach younger students, but I found this short video and think it works as a teaching tool. Essentially, it's a compliation of Disney movies that outlines the basics of copyright and fair use (and of course, takes a swipe at Disney).

Whenever I learn something, I try to figure out the best way to relay that information to students in a manner that is easy to understand and delivered in a format that is commonplace for them. While this video is somewhat annoying to adults, I feel it would work well in the classroom because today's students are entranced by flashing images delivered at record speeds.

"A Fair (y) Use Tale" Has a bias or two showing, but that'll make a nice discussion topic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJn_jC4FNDo