Teachers Guide to Music, Media, and Copyright review
James Frankel recently wrote a book released on Hal Leonard titled “Teachers Guide to Music, Media, and Copyright”. It sparked my interest, as I am a big fan of Larry Lessig and Creative Commons, and have self published my own CD of music, as well as written many works for media projects, so I decided to check it out.
The book covers exactly what it says – but in a very bare bones fashion. There’s no lawyer speak involved, and the entire book cover copyright, where its headed, and what it means to you as a teacher or educator. He tackles many frequently asked questions about Fair Use, Creative Commons, licenses, and more.
If you’re an educator and are looking for a quick and easy explanation on how to guide your lessons and make sure you don’t infringe on others’ rights, then this book is or you.
What else I enjoyed about this book is how it is Published in Association with TI:ME, which is the Technology Institute for Music Educators. Tom Rudolph is the President of TI:ME, who I first met in 2005 when he did a clinic on Sibelius, Finale, and Notion at the University of the Arts.
The only issue I have with this is how Wolfram Alpha and Wikipedia can be used for references because the scene changes so fast. Everything from the mechanical license fees, to the actual law is changing to the point that some things go out of date as soon as they publish. Besides, if worse came to worse I can always ask my Twitter followers or Youtube subscribers 
Overall, its a great book, and one that you should check out in order to get you up to par with how things work. As an educator, your job is to inform your students with valuable knowledge. They learn simply by you leading by example, and therefore, you owe it to yourself to protect them, and you.
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