Researching various links, including the wikipedia article, helped me to be a) very confused and b) find out some very useful stuff.
First the confusing stuff. "In all countries where the Berne Convention standards apply, copyright is automatic, and need not be obtained through official registration with any government office." wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright)so in countries that haven't signed this treaty what are the rules? How could this be enforced? in most places it is simply 50 years past an author's death, but in Europe it is 70. There are other exceptions as well but the BIG one is "fair use", how on earth can this be defined?
Now the good stuff. Creative commons is a site where you can copyright your work in detail. This means you can specify exactly what bit can be copied by whom and how often, rather than just a blanket "copyright protected". But it's best feature is the search engine. You can search for stuff that you can use without feeling guilty (or more importantly without breaking the law).
My readings for my university course also lead me to some fascinating examples of the complexity involved in the internet and copyright. Cooper v Universal Music Pty Ltd was a landmark case as "...a Brisbane webmaster, his Internet Service Provider (ISP), a director of the ISP, and a technical support employee of the ISP were liable for ‘authorising’ the infringing activities of users of a website which acted as an index and search engine for MP3 files located elsewhere on the Internet." , (Electronic Frontiers Australia
Media Release - Hyperlinking appeal causes concern)
So watch out with your links, you could be in breach of copyright if the original person to upload something also breached copyright.So what are the implications in the classroom? What about the kids work? What do I teach them about this? and LASTLY what about all the stuff I link to and embed on my own blog...AAARRGH
Professor Eric Faden of Bucknell University created this humorous, yet informative, review of copyright principles delivered through the words of the very folks we can thank for nearly endless copyright terms.
This video is also an interesting spin on the issue
3 comments:
Hi Stuart
The idea of having videos linked to what you are writing is very nice. In fact my second blog for this week is on multimedia and education. You can have a look at http://hemseeboo.blogspot.com/ and you can leave any additional comments.
Copyright, to my point of view is very important. Legally, a copyrighted material belong to the copyright holder, and for anyone to reproduce the items, whether for personal use or business use, it is a copyright violation and it is illegal.
There exist certain exemptions to the use of copyright. The most important is called “fair use.” The law permits uses for purposes such as news reporting, comment, criticism, scholarly endeavors such as research, teaching and to some extent parody. In all instances, the issue is whether the use is “fair” or is it simply plagiarism with a commercial purpose?
In today’s world, there is recognition that copyright transcends boundaries. Nations have come together to provide legal protection and prevent unauthorized copying. The Berne Convention and the Universal Copyright Convention have created international standards, which dictate that regardless of the origin of the work, if the author is a member of a signatory nation he is to be treated as least as well as each member country treats its own.
Hemnath
Hi Hem
Thanks I appreciate your thoughts. Did you check out the second video (it was just a link). In it Disney has apparently extended a copyright on an author beyond the 50 years past death rule on copyright. Even though we have these international conventions corporations manage to bypass it all!
Do you know of if educational institutions have an exemptions for copyright? Have you had any experience with creative commons or copyleft?
Stuart
Stu, your site puts the rest of us to shame. I'm yet to have a go at including some multi media files. Your thought on copyright are very interesting. Some teachers copy a hell of a lot (speaking as a teacher aid who does the coping for them!) but its not until I made and published a book 2 years ago for use in the school,and have since sold copies to other schools that I appreciate the value of copyright. It's the intellectual property of the writer and as such should be respected and used according to the copyright laws. I think it is too easy sometimes just to photocopy stuff, but in this day of technological advancement and the web as a fantastic resource, maybe planning should incorporate a lot more web-based resources - hence this course!!!
Cheers Heather
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