Managing Copyright in a Digital World

Abstract

The article begins with a brief overview of copyright law and an examination of those laws that have been enacted in recent years to delineate appropriate uses of information in the electronic environment. Also discussed are copyright movements such as Creative Commons and Open Access. The impact of copyright is then discussed in relation to various types of electronic information and resources, and their delivery. Examples include course management systems, e-reserves, and streaming video and key copyright cases are discussed. The article ends with a discussion of future copyright trends.

Open Praxis vol. 11 issue 2

“…This has also allowed the organization the flexibility to make use of copyright expired materials, as a means of expanding and populating their content base, which in turn serves to reach more consumers. Additionally, open licensing is also used to avoid the chances for copyright claims by creators over their works as well as to minimize the chances of copyright infringement by users (Koščík & Šavelka, 2013;Bannister, 2011;Ferullo & Soules, 2012). Simultaneously, Pratham Books also sees the benefit of persuading publishing houses and other literacy organizations to use the StoryWeaver platform to upload and share their works for increased accessibility to content and dissemination.…”

The Role of Open Educational Resources (OERs) in Primary Education in Developing Nations: A Case Study of India

“…The best way for a copyright owner to do this is to release it under a Creative Commons (CC) license (Kursun, Cagiltay & Can, 2014;Casey, 2012) If materials released as an OER has content that is not correctly licensed, reuse of that content would likely be considered as copyright infringement (Ferullo & Soules, 2012 This is because the legal systems vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction and it is important for OER creators and distributors to bear this in mind.…”

“…The understanding of copyright is required for users to avoid copyright infringement, which is also applicable in the event where open licenses are used. More specifically, if OER content is not correctly licensed or attributed, the reuse of that content could put users at risk of infringement (Ferullo & Soules, 2012).…”

“…Accessing the work of others offers them scalability and increased quantity and volume on their sites. However, if content released online is wrongly attributed or licensed, the users of that content would be deemed as copyright infringers and literature does report some concerns over the licensing of material on OER sites (Ferullo & Soules, 2012). This is not helped by the fact that copyright is already confusing in educational institutions where staff-created teaching materials are often owned by the university rather than the original creators.…”

“…Similarly, due to the poor focus on pedagogical aspects, OER knowledge is very poor in educational settings, be it schools or universities (Kanwar, 2013;Masterman et al, 2011b;Masterman et al, 2011c). Lastly, the scholarly works on OERs and intellectual property are reviewed, wherein copyright-related issues are explored (Ferullo & Soules, 2012;McCoy, 2009;Shaver, 2014;Bammel, 2014) in conjunction with Creative Commons (Kursun, Cagiltay & Can, 2014;Casey, 2012;Collins, 2013).…”