Cindy forwarded this post from the Heinemann blog site. The post outlines Heinemann’s effort to clearly state their position regarding copyright as some educators have obviously taken content from Heinemann sources and repurposed what has been copied as part of content then sold through Teachers Paying Teachers.
The language added to the existing policy includes this material:
Heinemann’s authors have devoted their entire careers to developing the unique content in their works, and their written expression is protected by copyright law. We respectfully ask that you do not adapt, reuse, or copy anything on third-party (whether for-profit or not-for-profit) lesson sharing websites.
We have felt publishers need to move beyond self-contained textbooks to take the opportunity offer readers book-related content and we have made an effort to take this multi-component approach in our own writing. Clearly offering sample lessons and tutorials online makes you vulnerable to easy copy and paste use of your materials by others. Selling this “borrowed” content is particularly egregious.
Part of the problem here is likely the blind eye of the sites serving as intermediaries between content creators and publishers. This lack of oversight seems familiar to the argument made by social media sites (e.g., Facebook) contending they have no responsibility for the content others make available through their service.
I suppose it also important to help educators understand the limits of “fair use”.