Got a Lawsuit? :: Curriculum

Lesson Time - Four (4) 60-Minutes

Lesson Time - 4 hours: 4 Class Periods

Standards

Objectives and Goals

Students will gain an understanding of the ethical issues inherent to the Animation industry through the process of acquiring, understanding and evaluating Copyright, trademark and Property infringement.Students will be divided in pairs and, through guided exercise, explore recent court cases involving copyright, trademark and property infringements in the entertainment industry.Students will research the legal and social issues surrounding a legal case of interest for a classroom debate. (Subsequent lesson in series)
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Activities in this Lesson

What have you heard? (30 minutes) - Hooks / Set
30 minutes

Teacher will ask students to perform an Internet search to identify the following key lesson terms:
- Copyright
- Trademark
- Patent
- Personal property disputes (in the context of the Entertainment, Multimedia industry)
- Public Domain
- Litigant
The teacher will ask students to express their definitions of the terms and lead a short classroom discussion to establish working definitions of these terms.
- Creative Commons [ Go to Site ]
- US Government - Copyright [ Go to Site ]
- Music Publisher's Association [ Go to Site ]
- ASCAP [ Go to Site ]
Court Case Investigation - Debate Preparation - Projects
60 minutes (Project work can be extended over 2 class periods)

In pairs, using the attached list of famous court cases, Students will review various cases of interest and select a court case pertaining to a copyright issue in the music and/or entertainment industry, in order to support opposing sides of the court case in a classroom debate format.

Through guided activity, Students will research the litigant positions of a court case so that they are prepared to defend each litigant's position in terms of
- ownership
- financial costs
- ethical issues
- copyrightcases.pdf [ Download ] Court Decisions - Copyright
Key Activity - Classroom Presentation - Other
Students will develop and present a court case decision regarding copyrights, trademarks, or intellectual property infringement.
1. Student groups will present a multimedia presentation for the class.
2. Students within the presentation will give a brief background of the case, describe both sides of the case, outcome of case, and financial and image impact on the business.
3. Students will create a an MLA formatted Works Cited for the presentation.

Assessment

Assessment Types:: Rubrics, Projects, Demonstrations, Observations, Topical Debate

Each student will be assessed in a classroom debate, against an oral presentation rubric which determines their depth/breadth of subject knowledge & understanding.