Re: HIT: COPYRIGHT OF TEACHER-MADE AR TESTS

[Gail Smith <ladyhunsdon@EARTHLINK.NET>]

on 3/15/02 5:01 PM, Carol Kotsch at FJCL1@AOL.COM wrote:

> Thanks to those who took the time to reply to my question about a volunteer
> selling copies of her made-up questions for books not available as tests from
> AR.  I really appreciate all the questions I have had answered on LM_NET.
> But to the point:  while some said yes and some said no and some said maybe,
> I went ahead and contacted Renassanice Learning and they emphatically said it
> would be a copyright violation to share teacher/volunteer-made tests with
> other schools.  Sigh.
>
While I can understand that Renaissance Learning would want to discourage
people from sharing tests that they made, whether giving or selling, I
wonder how it could actually be a copyright violation.  The program itself
is their intellectual property, but since it comes with the capability to
add other tests, they cannot prohibit that.  Since they had nothing to do
with the volunteer-made tests, they cannot claim any ownership of that
intellectual property. Why would it violate copyright to use a built in
feature of the program to load tests that you have purchased from or been
given by the person who made them, even if unaffiliated with Renaissance
Learning?  Obviously, it would be easiest to get them in digital form, but
surely Renaissance Learning could not prohibit sharing in print format that
you could then enter yourself????

Maybe someone else can clarify it for me.  Thanks.


--
Gail Smith, Librarian and Tech Coordinator
Edison Regional Gifted Center
Chicago, Illinois
gsmith@edison.cps.k12.il.us

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