I’m no patent expert, but a not so recent article in the Times (recently highlighted on Slashdot) addresses how “colleges and universities own the ideas and technologies invented by the people who work for them, including professors and graduate students who are paid to do research.” This is a great revenue generator for cash-strapped institutions, but things get complicated when the inventor needs to obtain a license for their own idea, as happened to the student interviewed for the article.
Schools are by definition a place of learning, which is a process of self discovery. What does it mean for a school to own something that comes out of your head while you’re working or attending there? It’s true that these discoveries happen with the aid of school resources, but others might argue that the product of all of a school’s resources is learning (or at least maybe it should be).
Educational technologists have recently worried about student’s owning the copyight to their assignments (which now often appear online)–this is an interesting twist on a similar problem.
I’ll admit that my thoughts on this feel half-baked at the moment.
Along the same lines as my last post, Ars gets into the costs of the RIAA’s proposed “3 strikes” policy. My favorite part:
Jerry Scroggin is the owner of Bayou Internet and Communications(BIC),
a small ISP based in Monroe, Louisiana with around 11,000 small
business, residential, and municipal customers. BIC already receives
notifications from the RIAA each month, and each time”I ask for their
billing address,” Scroggin told CNET. “Usually, I never hear back.”
Techdirt also mentions something that crossed my mind, but didn’t make it into the blog post–taking the fight out of the courts allows the recording industry to sidestep due process. It may make less of a “public statement,” but privately settling these disputes might ensure an outcome that’s more agreeable and perhaps (from their perspective) better than they might have won under the law.
The Center for Social Media has created a Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education. Right at the start, the video addresses a misconception I’ve heard on my campus: “you can get in trouble for using videos in the classroom.” The principles listed in the report itself clearly state guidelines for when it’s (likely) alright to use copyrighted material in (and preparing for) class. While rights holders may dispute this, I hope these clear statements are the type that any educational institution could get behind.
I recently gave a brief talk on copyright for a Digital Storytelling workshop. I promised to share the materials, the slides and a quick summary of what I said for each slide are after the break.
Continue reading ‘Resources on copyright for education’
Cory Doctorow has written a column that’s worth checking out that is making an argument that is becoming somewhat of a consensus in copyright circles–copyright must change for digital culture to work. I have my own arguments for why this is true, but that is for another day.
Larry Lessig writes preview of his new book in a Wall Street Journal column this weekend. Lessig makes some bold and compelling statements for one who is working less in the realm of copyright. Many of his arguments are actually near to the work I am doing on my dissertation–it’s nice to be in good company 
A few points are worth further comment:
“We could craft copyright law to encourage a wide range of both professional and amateur creativity, without threatening Prince’s profits.” …I like this argument for a balance in the law where professional creative-types are still able to profit, while still loosening control for equally valuable amateur copying.
“Peer-to-peer file sharing is the enemy in the “copyright wars.” Kids “stealing” stuff with a computer is the target. The war is not about new forms of creativity, not about artists making new art.” …another great distinction between replacement copying (which carries an economic harm) and profitless but creative amateur creativity.
“Our kids live in an age of prohibition, where more and more of what seems to them to be ordinary behavior is against the law. They recognize it as against the law. They see themselves as “criminals. … That recognition is corrosive. It is corrupting of the very idea of the rule of law” …it’s not in the article, but gobs of theory and research can back up Lessig’s claim here.
I’m not sure if Lessig was responsible, but the sidebar with mash-y creations is also a good compilation for the unititiated. His policy recomendations are not bad as well. I’m looking forward to the book.
