Parents, DRM & School Projects

Just posted this in Facebook, but want to post here too for broader audience.

To Elementary School Parents out there:

how are you dealing with your kid(s) pulling digital assets down from the network and using them in class projects/science fair presentations and such?

when one of our kids is using an image, a song, or a video that they don't have copyright to, for commercial purposes (e.g. builds a video on YouTube to get more subscribers), the line seems clear; you can only use stuff you have the rights to do so. Sorry kid, you can't use that song in that video.

however, for a school project, it's not feeling as clear. I can easily hold things to the literal letter of the law (nope... sorry kid, you can't use that because you didn't create it (or you don't have rights to it)), but is that going overboard?

I guess I'm feeling like "commercial" equates to "competitive purposes" (not necessarily monetary) in this context, and if you're trying to "compete" (e.g. win best of show), any material you use needs to have appropriate rights associated.

therefore, for a school project you need to have rights to the stuff you incorporate into it. ugh, after saying that, I used to tear out pages from Time magazine for school projects, but I certainly didn't have "rights to use" those articles or images.

definitely foreshadowing myself being at the project fair, seeing another kid "win" and asking him/her whether or not they played by the copyright rules, finding out they do not, and asking that they be disqualified :).

DRM... what a mess.