One of the hottest topics for us at the moment is the subject of copyrighted media. In an age where 'Mash-ups' and 'Rip-offs' are commonplace why are we insisting on original materials?

We believe it is incumbent upon us as educators to teach young people to respect the creation and copyright of original work. If we endorse the use of copyrighted materials without proper permissions and referencing, whether that work is for purely academic and non public viewing or not then we are not educating our students. Copyright theft is law breaking, if we told young people to get in their cars and break the speed limit then we are encouraging them to break the law... That dosen't happen because we know it is wrong, why then do people think it is ok to copy a track by Jack Jones or Green Day or some other commercial artist and include it in their films?

I am interested to hear other opinions on this subject... In America there exists a law called 'Fair Use' (wikipedia), this does not apply to the UK... Under the terms of that it is my understanding that you can use or reference portions of other peoples work for educational, reference or parody purposes. Should we be looking towards a similar law for the UK? Should copyright law be updated? What are your thoughts and your suggestions?