Hi Barbara,
I appreciate your comments. You make some legitimate points. Let me respond to
the extent I have time.
Regarding the terms of use of print materials, let me add there ARE some publishers
that use more accurate language but still protect their interests. In a book from
Oxford University Press it is stated, "All rights reserved. No part of this
publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any
form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University
Press, OR AS EXPRESSLY PERMITTED BY LAW [emphasis added], or under terms agreed
with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning
reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the ELT Rights
Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above." Yes, this is a minor
detail. But it serves in part an example of how we need to be critical of claims
that may not be fitting of the circumstance.
It's true, I cannot comment on Australian copyright law, but in the U.S. I would
encourage students to manipulate, reinvent, redesign, and improve upon others'
works. Cultures have been doing this for centuries (Disney is a leader in this
category). The problem is finding a balance between the authors' rights and public
benefit. Read some of the court cases involving Google and you will see the courts
in the U.S. take very seriously the benefit to society when deciding cases
involving intellectual property.
I do not agree with your statement that the purpose of copyright is merely to
"protect the rights of the creator." I would add that copyright also exists to
maintain open access to ideas in the form of expression. Fair use and the limited
duration of copyright are two safety valves to ensure this free flow of information
that is so critical in a democratic society.
I don't endorse blatant disregard for copyright law, but I do think the educational
community (myself included) is often coerced into "hyper-compliance" because the
law is so difficult to interpret.
I hope my response to Doug's post did imply I agree with EVERY one of his comments.
I simply wanted to add to it as a point of interest related to his ideas.
I'm glad you brought up these issues. All of us need to debate this more and
become better versed in its application.
John
Dr. John Eye
Assoc. Professor of Library Science
Sherratt Library
Southern Utah University
Cedar City, Utah 84720
435 865 8392 office
eye@suu.edu
>>> "Barbara Braxton" <barbara.288@bigpond.com> 4/3/2008 1:27 PM >>>
Dear John
Doug and I have had some offlist discussion about this but I have to respond to
your point about
Fair Use not being on the verso page of print materials or in T&C on websites
because what is Fair
Use in the US does not necessarily carry over into Fair Use in other countries, and
YouTube
particularly, but also print matter, is worldwide. So to refer to it in their
Terms and Conditions
or on the verso page of a book would be irrelevant anywhere but the US.
In Australia, our educational authorities purchase specific licences for us to
cover the use of
materials in the classroom (not tertiary institutions) The terms of these licences
are quite
specific but give us broader freedoms that what you have under Fair Use from I can
determine by
LM_NET posts. Although there are Fair Use clauses in the Copyright Act 1968 for
the general public,
the US version of these does not apply here.
Here are some questions I have raised with Doug ... and I think the first one is
particularly
pertinent.
1. If you upload a video to YouTube do you assign intellectual property rights
and copyright to
them?
In Australia, at least, you are forever recognised as the creator of something and
IP can't be
signed away although copyright can. Having their T&C as they do, are the YouTube
bods acknowledging
that while they are offering a forum for presentation they own neither IP or
copyright and therefore
THEY don't have the right to allow people to download the clips (and possibly alter
them,
redistribute them in a different format or claim them as their own which are the
untouchable moral
rights of the author). If YouTube is acknowledging their position with IP and
copyright though
these T&C, shouldn't we tell the kids that this is why we can't download them and
view them as a
class, and thus reinforce the messages about citing sources and anti-piracy etc.
There seems to be
no reference to writing the URL and the clip's title/search term on the board (or
distributing it to
the kids) and suggesting they watch it at home. How many kids would love to tell
their parents that
watching a YouTube clip was a legitimate part of their homework. Whether the
copyright owner is a
large multi-national or an LM_NET member we need to recognise and respect the
purpose of copyright
is to protect the rights of the creator, and without it, people like Toni Buzzeo
and all the other
authors on this list could not afford to produce the stuff that they do.
2. Does the legality of the T&C have to be proven in case law in every
country? If it is
proven to be upheld (or not) in the US, does that therefore hold for use in
Australia?
3. Does everything have to be proven in case law before it can be claimed
legal?
I still hold the view, that no matter how silly, we cannot pick and choose which
laws we choose to
obey and which we don't. If we think something is so silly or whatever that it
needs to be changed,
then we need to take the steps to change it, not just break it and advocate others
do the same,
particularly in our professional lives. Is your job worth that 60 second clip you
are showing? How
would you have presented that material three years ago before YouTube? Could the
legality and
changing the YouTube T&C be a real-world investigation that students could
undertake? How much
LEARNING would that generate?
Barbara
Barbara Braxton
Teacher Librarian
COOMA NSW 2630
AUSTRALIA
E. barbara.288@bigpond.com
Together we learn from each other
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