CI 5472 Post (for fun) 2.5.1 - Shiver Me Timbers: Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King

For all of you in our class who are fans of the Dave Matthews Band, their new album uniquely titled Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King was released this week in the United States (I told you I'd weave DMB into my posts). If you're like me and didn't want to spend the extra 6 dollars to get the DVD edition of the album with the in-studio footage of the band discussing and making the album, I have embedded all three full-length parts bellow.

As related specifically to our class, where do we fall as instructors / what is our role when it comes to teaching literacies (e.g., manipulation of audio and video) that may potentially be used for illegal purposes (e.g., copyright infringement and pirating)? Do we explicitly address the subject, telling our students to use the "power" for good vs. evil? If so, think of all of the additional teachable moments that could come out of such a discussion including media / copyright law, ethics, and so on. Or do we not bring it up for fear of planting the seed for students to use their literacies for illegal purposes? After all, the videos that I have embedded into this blog posting where initially "ripped" from the DVD (a DVD that I'm not paying money to view and share with you right now), in order to upload to YouTube in the first place. Also, after being taught be a fellow cohort member it is well within my power to convert these YouTube files into a form that I can burn onto a disk and play in my own DVD player, therefore making a copy of the disk... not that I would do such a thing.

Also, as related specifically to our class, where do we fall when it comes to using potentially "pirated" material for instructional purposes. For example, during my media studies unit, I used MANY clips of popular television shows including Family Guy, Everybody Loves Raymond, the Simpsons, and so on, that where most likely illegal "rips."

Anyways, by my embedding of the following content you can get a glimpse of my particular stance on the questions I've posed. What does everyone else think?

Enjoy the pirated videos everyone. Aaargh!