Copyright Matters

Worlds in Collision

2008-06-03T09:48:00.000-07:00

Abstract from the June/July issue of Innovate: In the past, copyright and education have evolved together in response to technological advances from the book to the videocassette, and copyright law has been designed to allow educators to use a wide range of media with their students. Stephen Marshall describes how digital communication technologies threaten these accommodations, not as a direct consequence of the technology itself or even of copyright law but rather as a result of the growing prevalence of control technologies aimed at extracting profits from every conceivable use of information. Marshall argues for a rethinking of copyright in the face of Web 2.0 technologies that do not fit into traditional conceptualizations of copyright and suggests that, if educators do not speak up, copyright law will be taken over by corporate forces interested only in profit, to the detriment of educational uses of media.

Lecture Notes Protected?

2008-04-07T10:44:00.000-07:00

Wired Magazine reports a professor suing to protect the copyright of his lecture notes. Not his own notes, but notes taken by students at his lectures. Interesting.

Podcast on Updates in Copyright Law

2008-03-28T09:32:00.000-07:00

EDUCAUSE has a podcast and has recently had an episode on recent updates in Copyright Law. Have a listen to the introduction here - http://connect.educause.edu/blog/gbayne/educauselivepodcastupdate/46505 - then fire up your iTunes and subscribe to the podcast.

Turn it In wins court case

2008-03-28T09:28:00.000-07:00

I recently mentioned a court case where students sued Turn It In for copyright violation. The plagiarism prevention company allows professors to run papers through its database, where the paper is compared to thousands of other papers. Turn It In then adds the submitted paper to its database, complete with identifiable information like the student's name and the professor's name. It is this last step that is the reason for the lawsuit.

A court ruled that Turn It In did not violate copyright in this reuse of student work, the Chronicle of Education reported. I'm personally skeptical, as are the plaintiffs, who plan to appeal.

http://chronicle.com/free/2008/03/2250n.htm

Impact of Copyright Confusion

2008-03-17T16:10:00.000-07:00

Here is a good article, reprinted from Education Week, on the impact of copyright confusion among teachers and students.

Copyright Confusion Is Shortchanging Our Students By Renee Hobbs

The web makes the difference

2008-03-17T15:53:00.000-07:00

Students at Univ of Iowa are up in arms about the University's plan to publish student work on the web. The thing is, the information was publicly available before, just not on the web. The students argue, with some reason, that publishing the work on the web is different from making it available in the graduate office.

U. of Iowa Writing Students Revolt Against a Plan They Say Would Give Away Their Work on the Web

The Cost of Copyright

2008-03-04T17:30:00.000-08:00

A thoughtful commentary on the recent article "The Cost of Copyright Confusion for Media Literacy. "

http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/archives/1369

Intellectual Property Conference

2008-03-04T17:26:00.001-08:00

" Join the Center for Intellectual Property for its annual symposium exploring the relationship between the U.S. copyright monopoly, technological innovation and higher education institutions."
http://www.umuc.edu/mkting/cip/index2.html

Copyright resource list

2008-02-29T13:42:00.001-08:00

This handy list of copyright resources is mostly focused on music and other audio resources.
http://reelmecourse.blogspot.com/2008/02/copyright-resource-list.html

Copyright Update

2008-02-29T13:40:00.001-08:00

Listen to this Educause conference presentation on education related copyright law - http://connect.educause.edu/Library/Abstract/UpdateonKeyUSCopyrightDev/46310

Copyright for Kids

2007-10-15T14:57:00.000-07:00

The Entertainment Software Association is aiming an anti-piracy ad at kindergarteners. Talk about starting early!

2007-10-11T15:00:00.000-07:00

Here are some interesting comments by a professor from Perdue about copyright and fair use. He focuses in part on the recent lawsuits from the recording industry against individuals for illegal downloading. Whether you agree or disagree with the professor's views, it will get you thinking. Be sure to click on the useful embedded links.

Some Comments on Copyright and on Fair Use by Professor Eugene Spafford

Copyright Chart for Teachers

2007-10-09T15:27:00.000-07:00

Here is a great 2 page chart to help educators evaluate copyright issues in various contexts.

Copyright and Fair Use Guidelines for Teachers

Copyright on NPR

2007-05-08T21:01:00.000-07:00

If you missed the Morning Edition story about Fair Use and Copyright on Monday, here is a link: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10040628

From Soup to Nuts: Copyright, Social Networking Technologies, and Electronic Surveillance

2007-05-03T21:04:00.000-07:00

From the Educause Midwest Regional Conference in March. You can read the text of a speech on a variety of issues including digital copyright. Below is a copy of the abstract from the websites

"Abstract:

This session will survey a number of current issues of interest to higher education IT such as developments in the digital copyright arena, the present and future of social networking technologies (from the law and policy perspectives), and electronic surveillance five years since the passage of the Patriot Act (from a security-privacy perspective)."

Privacy versus Intellectual Property:Detection Methods Used by Copyright Holders

2007-05-01T21:10:00.000-07:00

I recently mentioned in a copyright presentation that the web has made it much easier for people to catch your copyright violations. And there are armies of people out there trying to catch you. Here is an interesting paper on just how they go about it.

Privacy versus Intellectual Property:Detection Methods Used by Copyright Holders

Another Copyright law in the works

2007-04-10T06:32:00.000-07:00

Florida Representative Ric Keller has introduced the Curb Illegal Downloading on College Campuses Act of 2007. This act would enable the US Department of Education to introduce and expand anti-piracy efforts on campuses.

A good use of taxpayers dollars? You decide. Here's a link to a blogger who thinks not.

Another good copyright summary

2007-04-05T06:42:00.000-07:00

If you have students post to forums, usenets, listservs, blogs, etc, it might be useful for them to read a copyright warning from such a source. Here is a useful debunking of several copyright myths in plain language. Its location on a sports forum might make it more accessible to students.

Notice to Everyone posting

Students protect their copyright

2007-04-03T21:15:00.000-07:00

You may have heard of Turnitin.com, a service designed to catch plagiarism. Many schools subscribe to the service. They check a paper against a huge database of other papers to see if the work is original or not. Well, a few students whose work became part of that database have sued Turnitin.com for violation of their copyright. Interesting stuff.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070330-high-schoolers-turn-in-plagiarism-screeners-for-copyright-infringement.html

Math videos on Google

2007-03-29T10:41:00.000-07:00

Ok, this is not strictly related to copyright, but is pretty cool and you should know about it. Pearson education and Google have teamed up to make math videos available to the masses. You can link to these videos from your website or blackboard classroom and have the ability to provide great content that is no work for you. What could be better?

Well, it could be better if it were all free - students can purchase the lectures for 99 cents to $3.99 for lectures and textbook chapters. There are some free lectures available as well.

These kinds of lectures can be especially useful for folks who have math components in their non-math classes and need some way for the folks who need extra help to get it without taking up class time.

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/03-22-2007/0004551474&EDATE=

Fair Use - Use it or lose it

2007-03-27T20:45:00.000-07:00

This article is from last year, but sets out an interesting argument about the chilling effect of copyright protection. The examples given are on satirical artistic expression.
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3066

FAIR USE Act

2007-03-22T23:19:00.000-07:00

If you were at my workshop on Monday, you learned about the prosed FAIR USE Act. Here is a little more information about it from a critical perspective - http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=6270

If you missed the workshop, you're in luck. We are offering it again early in Spring quarter. Keep an eye out for the announcement.

Digital media, ethics and law

2007-03-20T20:40:00.000-07:00

Here is a handy explanation of ethical and legal issues around the use of digital media from the University of Michigan - http://www.umich.edu/~policies/digital-media.html

Google violating Copyright?

2007-03-15T20:01:00.000-07:00

Google's motto is "do no evil", yet compaines like Micrisoft and Viacom, are accusing Google of that very thing through it's "overbroad" reading of fair use. What do you think?

http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Microsoft_Google_Violates_Copyright/551-79672-643.html

Insurance for Documentary Filmmakers

2007-03-13T20:24:00.000-07:00

Copyright has been challenge for some documentary filmmakers. Now an insurance company has teamed up with Stanford Law School's Fair Use Project to protect filmmakers against claims of fair use violation.

http://sev.prnewswire.com/entertainment/20070227/AQTU03927022007-1.html