Mid-South Instructional Technology Conference
Teaching, Learning, & Technology
The Challenge Continues
March 30-April 1, 2003
The Wrinkle in Your Research and Teaching: Copyright, DMCA, Guidelines, and Public Domain
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By: Suann Alexander, Diane Baird |
Abstract
Iron out the wrinkle created by copyright! Information about recent copyright legislation will equip you to iron out those wrinkles that can affect your academic work. Copyright is constantly changing in scope and concept. Legal expertise is often the ultimate answer. But a basic understanding of the historical background, constitutional basis, some of the accepted guidelines, current legislation, and the public domain advocacy issue will help to avoid any problem wrinkles that copyright might create in your research and teaching.
Description
The academic community is constantly dealing with information they expect to disseminate for publication, teaching, or research. Often this information is copyrighted. Copyright should always be a consideration, but not a roadblock or deterrent. Intellectual property and copyright have evolved greatly from the first concept in 1557. There has always been activity around the concept and legal aspects of copyright, and the most recent legislation and current advocacy have only put more wrinkles in the way of our using copyrighted material. The expansion of copyright to an international level, not just a national level, has introduced changes and compromises that must be considered. The United States is the largest exporter of copyrighted materials and citizens have the right to be comfortable with the exportation of their material.
Electronic information has proliferated to the extent that it has become a major player in the copyright world. Information retrieval and dissemination has changed drastically and managing intellectual property is often a matter of finding a new procedure. We are familiar with buying, borrowing, and copying materials; today we can expect to license, link and download materials. This will drastically affect our use of copyrighted material, as will the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
Getting a sense of the many different attitudes and actions swirling around copyright will help put the issues in perspective. Information on the historical background, the constitutional basis of copyright, some of the guidelines, and most importantly, the current legislation that affects copyright, fair use, and public domain will help clear up misconceptions and questions about copyright.