This is the last post associated with last weekend’s Beyond Boundaries conference. It took me a little while to get to this.
I try to attend sessions or read materials on copyright whenever I can. I tend to interpret copyright standards conservatively and I wanted to hear someone defend a more liberal perspective. A couple of J.D.s presented so I took note.
One thing I have noticed is that everyone wants to characterize what he/she has to say as “information” and not legal advice. This session was no different.
The information presented in this Powerpoint is intended only as a general introduction to this topic and does not constitute legal advice.
I am never sure what that means. Is it –
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I am not going to claim this as legal advice unless you are my client.
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Everyone has an opinion – this is mine.
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No one knows for sure until we go to court.
The J.D.s reviewed the position of the Minnesota State Colleges and Univerities system. You may find the resource of value.
The TEACH act is of particular interest to me. This act is an effort to provide distance educators the same Fair Use opportunities as classroom instructors. One of the problems with legal wording for me is that it is imprecise. One such phrase associated with the TEACH act is “systematic mediated instructional activity.” While the intent of the TEACH act is laudible, my interpretation has been that the law does not help distance educators much because distance education often functions in a different way than face to face classroom instruction. Classroom instruction is typically synchronous and distance education is often asynchronous. In other words, resources in distance education are often made available and used by students at multiple points in time. Many approaches to distance education do not involve the instructor and all students being online at the same time. So, I have wondered, would it be allowable to create web pages with embedded fair use content for review by students at different points in time? Would this be considered mediated instruction?
It appears the answer is no.
Put simply, educators may not electronically deliver works for student viewing outside of regular classroom time
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At least I think this means “no.” What does “regular classroom time” mean in distance education?
