Ellie sits at her desk at school where her teacher, Mrs. Lowe tells her students that they will be creating a presentation about one of the 50 states in America. Ellie is excited and she raises her hand.

"Mrs. Lowe, I want to do my report on Alaska, it's my favorite state!" says Ellie.

"That's great, Ellie! But first we need to learn about something called the Copyright Law before we start adding facts, pictures, and other things to our presentations!" says Mrs. Lowe.

"O.K, I'm ready to learn about the law, Mrs. Lowe."

Ellie has never heard of the Copyright Law, so she pays close attention to Mrs. Lowe as she grabs her chalk to jot down some facts. Ellie grabs her notebook and pencil to take notes.

Copyright laws are put in place to protect people's creative works that can be found in many resources. The U.S. Copyright Law forbids a person to use a work someone has created without giving proper credit to the creator.

"For your presentation, you will be using the Internet to search for facts, pictures, and more to use in your state report," says Mrs. Lowe. "So, we have to make sure to say thank you to the author so we don't break the law!"

"Mrs. Lowe, how do we say thank you to somebody that isn't here in our classroom?" asks Ellie.

Ellie takes a minute to think...

"That's a great question, Ellie, and brings us to our next fact about the Copyright Law" says Mrs. Lowe.

Mrs. Lowe rights another fact on the chalkboard...

Giving credit to the author of the information or work you use in your report is our way of saying "Thank you!"

If I use interesting facts I found on a website, I must say thank you to the author by giving them credit for their works.

"Do I have to call them to say thank you?"

Ellie raises her hand with a question.

Mrs. Lowe giggles.

"No," says Mrs Lowe. "But let me teach you how to say thank you by giving credit to the author!"

"When I search the Internet for a state facts, I find the perfect information to include in my presentation."

"But, I can't just copy and paste it onto a slide in my presentation. That would be breaking the copyright law"

"I need to take one more step to make sure that I say thank you to the author, giving them credit for their work." says Mrs. Lowe. "Let me show you how to do that!"