Submitted by: Brad Denison
Copyright fines can range from a couple thousand on up to millions of dollars depending on the type of copyright infringement and the severity. Maybe you have seen the commercial about file sharing that says “You wouldn’t steal a car… Piracy, it’s a crime.” In higher education we may not be dealing with piracy, but copyright law isn’t always that simple.
Copyright fines can range from a couple thousand on up to millions of dollars depending on the type of copyright infringement and the severity. Maybe you have seen the commercial about file sharing that says “You wouldn’t steal a car… Piracy, it’s a crime.” In higher education we may not be dealing with piracy, but copyright law isn’t always that simple.
On December 7, 2010 a case was filed against the University of California, Los Angeles over the duplication of DVD’s of Shakespeare plays. UCLA had the right to show the videos in classrooms or in the library, but not to stream the video across its network to any classroom or student on campus. Most recently, November 23, 2011, a docket was filed for a notice of motion, and motion to dismiss the case. That is nearly a year of legal costs to the university.
You do not want to be the person responsible for a copyright case at College of the Mainland.
So, what is copyright? The U.S. Copyright Office says that “Copyright is a form of protection grounded in the U.S. Constitution and granted by law for original works of authorship fixed in a tangible medium of expression.” This protects original works of authorship including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, such as poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software, and architecture. Copyright does not protect facts, ideas, systems, or methods of operation.
As an instructor you may be concerned with your student’s midterm paper. You look for something out of place, not in their voice, that may have been out right stolen from another source. You need to be just as concerned about how you use media in the classroom.
For instance, did you know that you cannot stream Netflix in your classroom? Your subscription and their service does not allow for public viewing of their stream.
This is from the Netflix Terms of Service page:
"Unless otherwise specified, our DVD rental service and the content on the Netflix website, including content viewed through our instant watching functionality, are for your personal and non-commercial use only and we grant you a limited license to access the Netflix website for that purpose. You may not download (other than through page caching necessary for personal use, or as otherwise expressly permitted by these Terms of Use), modify, copy, distribute, transmit, display, perform, reproduce, duplicate, publish, license, create derivative works from, or offer for sale any information contained on, or obtained from, the Netflix website, including but not limited to information contained within a member or members' Queue, without our express written consent."
Basically the limited license means that they do not allow for public - classroom or otherwise - display of their content. The best route would be to request permission in writing from Netflix for each user account that is used in a classroom and even then you may need to request permission from the film distributor.
If you think that something might violate copyright then it probably does. If you have questions about copyright issues at College of the Mainland do not hesitate to contact the Instructional Technology department at 409-933-8445. If you have any questions feel free to ask them in the comments and we can answer them in future blog posts.
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