EDUCAUSE | Copyright

Section 108 Copyright Study Group's Report Recently Released

agould — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 14:19:22 -0500

The Section 108 Copyright Study Group (www.section108.gov), which was assembled to study and look for potential changes to copyright law, released its report on March 31. Established under the watch of the Library of Congress, this group of independent experts was charged with finding areas in copyright law that might need changes in order to better balance the positions of rights holders and "cultural memory organizations such as libraries and archives in the digital world."

The group has worked on this issue for nearly three years. Among their recommendations, they conclude:

Museums should be included for Section 108 eligibility, since they perform many of the same functions as libraries and archives.
A new exception should be added to Section 108 to permit certain qualified libraries and archives to make preservation copies of at-risk published works prior to damage or loss.
Libraries and archives should be permitted to make a limited number of copies to create and maintain a single replacement or preservation copy. This would allow libraries to more securely preserve digital materials.

For more information, please see their full report at:http://www.section108.gov/docs/Sec108StudyGroupReport.pdf.

EDUCAUSE Live! Podcast: Update on Key U.S. Copyright Developments

gbayne — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 17:57:02 -0500

In this EDUCAUSE Live! podcast, join host, Steve Worona, for the topic "Update on Key U.S. Copyright Developments". Steve's guest is James G. Neal, Vice President for Information Services and University Librarian at Columbia University .

Copyright continues to be a core interest of the higher education and academic library communities. This briefing focuses on eight critical legislative and legal arenas where the United States will be working on copyright: orphan works, digital fair use, broadcast flag, Section 1201 anti-circumvention rulemaking, electronic reserves, peer-to-peer file sharing, open access to government-funded research, and the report of the Section 108 Study Group on exceptions and limitations for libraries and archives. The work of the study group is highlighted, including its primary findings and recommendations. In addition, two important recent studies are described and their importance for libraries are cited. The advocacy and educational roles and responsibilities of librarians on copyright also is outlined.

Tune In Jan. 23 for a Free Web Seminar on Evaluating the RIAA’s Legal Threats to Online Activity

pkurkowski — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 17:11:33 -0600

The recording industry’s complaints against alleged music downloaders are just the tip of the iceberg in legal threats against online activity. In the five years of the Chilling Effects Clearinghouse, we have seen thousands of legal threats, with claims including trademark infringement, defamation, and copyright infringement. This seminar will discuss some of the range of complaints, both unwarranted and justified, and describe ChillingEffects.org’s resources for those trying to evaluate legal threats. In some cases, the web’s sunlight can help to melt meritless threats.

In this free January 23 EDUCAUSE LIVE! seminar, Legal Threats, Chilling Effects, and Warming the Air, presenter Wendy Seltzer, Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, and Visiting Professor, Northeastern University School of Law, will discuss these threats and how to evaluate them.

Those unable to attend may wish to visit the archives after the event or browse related EDUCAUSE resources on Copyright Infringement, P2P or File Sharing, Piracy, and Patents.

Tune In October 2 for a Free Web Seminar on the Annual Copyright License, a New Tool for Copyrights on Campus

cluckett — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 11:54:56 -0500

Colleges and universities routinely struggle to address their copyright licensing needs campus-wide. How do faculty, library, bookstore staff, and others on campus effectively assess and secure the rights to copy material for coursepacks, classroom handouts, reserves, course Web pages, e-mail, and more? Are instructors getting permission to post published content on course management systems and electronic reserves when fair use may not apply?

To address these challenges, Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) recently unveiled the Annual Copyright License for Academic Institutions, a comprehensive campus-wide license that permits campus faculty, staff, and researchers to use and share copyrighted text-based content online and in print. In this free October 2 EDUCAUSE Live! Web seminar, Annual Copyright License—A New Tool for Permissions, Tim Bowen, Product Manager for academic licensing at CCC, and Jeff Rehbach, LIS Policy Advisor at Middlebury College, will discuss how staff members at Middlebury College, the license's charter client, helped CCC shape this new licensing service and how they're using it to address their copyright needs. This session will also include a brief overview of the license itself.

Those unable to attend may wish to visit the archives after the event or browse related EDUCAUSE resources on Licensing and Licensing Policies.

NACUA Fall 2007 Workshop: Law and Electrons -- Computers, Copyright, Telecommunications, Privacy, and Security on Campus

vvogel — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 11:37:34 -0500

Designed for college and university attorneys and administrators with responsibility for information technology, the NACUA Fall Workshop 2007 covers legal issues that arise at the intersection of computers and internet with legal obligations relating to privacy, security, and intellectual property. The program begins with a session covering recent developments in digital copyright and trademark law, and includes separate tracks on copyright and intellectual property issues as well as contracting and information technology law. Please join your colleagues November 7-9, 2007, in Washington, DC, for this opportunity for professional education, networking, and discussion.

This workshop is presented by NACUA in cooperation with EDUCAUSE.

June 5: Free Web Seminar on the Future of Webcasting in Light of New Royalty Rates

cluckett — Tue, 29 May 2007 16:31:46 -0500

The Copyright Royalty Board of the Library of Congress has recently issued a determination setting royalty rates for the performance of sound recordings via Webcasting. The rates have increased substantially, causing many Webcasters to worry about their future.

In this free June 5 EDUCAUSE Live! Web seminar, Webcasting Royalties: Where Do We Go from Here?, Matthew J. Astle, an attorney for Wiley Rein LLP, will address the history of the proceeding, review the key terms of the decision, and discuss options available to Webcasters to help them navigate an uncertain future. Those unable to attend may wish to visit the archives after the event.

This EDUCAUSE Live! Web seminar is cosponsored by The Association for Communications Technology Professionals in Higher Education (ACUTA).

New ELI Briefs on Creative Commons Licenses and Open Journaling

ecoghlan — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 18:10:46 -0500

Find out how Creative Commons copyright licenses offer greater flexibility for both intellectual property owners and users than traditional copyright in the 7 Things You Should Know About Creative Commons brief from the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI). Another recent ELI brief, 7 Things You Should Know About Open Journaling, spotlights how open journaling tools can be used for publishing peer-reviewed journals online. Browse the complete 7 Things You Should Know About… monthly series.

EDUCAUSE Midwest Regional Conference 2007. Summary: From Soup to Nuts: Copyright, Social Networking, & Electronic Surveillance

llarsen — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 22:19:15 -0500

Summary:

Closing General Session

2007 Midwest Regional Conference

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Chicago, Illinois

Title:

From Soup to Nuts: Copyright, Social Networking Technologies, and Electronic Surveillance

Speaker:

Tracy Mitrano

Director of IT Policy and Computer Policy and Law Program
Cornell University

Abstract:

This session will survey a number of current issues of interest to higher education IT such as developments in the digital copyright arena, the present and future of social networking technologies (from the law and policy perspectives), and electronic surveillance five years since the passage of the Patriot Act (from a security-privacy perspective).

Notes:

Tracy Mitrano opened her session with a request that the audience be interactive, ask questions, and do this session “together.”

Law and technology are out of sync with current business models and social norms. Indicators are

The Google Library Project and unresolved fair use questions
Viacom sues You Tube and its parent company Google for 1 billion dollars for unauthorized use of video clips
Peer-to-peer technology use including Bit Torrent – 85% of alleged copyright protected material is transmitted over commodity networks.

Because the protocols are free, it can be said that who ever controls the ‘pipes and content,’ controls the Internet.

Mitrano asks “what is the impact on higher education?

On the academic delivery of content:

Cornell received a pre-litigation letter from the American Association of Publishers regarding e-reserves. The Provost sent two letters to the campus. The result was 70% less use of e-reserve materials. Are e-reserves okay if authentication to the materials is in place? It was deemed that authentication can not be relied upon so new guidelines for electronic course content copyright were written. There is now a ‘Fair Use’ checklist and faculty sign-off with input into the course management system. Faculty must check “agree” that they have done due diligence on the copyright issues.

Mitrano highly recommended reading the Berkman Center white paper “The Digital Learning Challenge: Obstacles to Educational Uses of Copyrighted Material in the Digital Age.” [See http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/media/files/copyrightandeducation.html]

She believes that the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) wants to create confusion in their current strategy of sending pre-emptive copyright violation settlement notices to higher education institutions to be redirected to individuals. All the RIAA knows is an IP address and so they can not use a fast track method to sue a specific student. They have to have more specific information before a suit can be filed. EDUCAUSE refused to help RIAA with contact information. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) has safe harbor provisions. Most universities are just saying that they are only the conduit and do not need to forward. Now with the pre-emptive settlement letters there is the question of whether to forward or not to forward them. Regarding ‘Preservation’ Notices, Mitrano asks “on the basis of what law rests compliance?” Intellectual property and free speech or fair use? Mitrano recommends the Fair Use Network organization. [see fairusenetwork.org/]

Regarding ‘preservation letters,’ she asks “what must we hold on to for the RIAA?” Cornell provided information to students to lessen the confusion on the settlement letters that were being forwarded. Letter is available online at http://www.cit.cornell.edu/policy/memos/riaa.html.

What’s going on?

We are all waiting on a new business model for recordings. Cary Sherman, RIAA, said the CD was designed to last 10 years. In the meantime have the means become the end? From the patent law playbook she asks if “intellectual property has become the business model instead of the product in the entertainment industry?

Mitrano asks “Why is Higher Education in the bull’s eye of the target when the worst estimate of its percent of possible illegal downloading is only 15% of the total?”

Possibly as an object lesson for commercial ISPs?
Possibly because we aren’t big money people and so no one in the US Congress will defend us?
Possibly because the RIAA is looking for a perceived deep pocket?
Possibly because we actually care about our students and missions and will do what we think best for our students regardless of what we hold the legality of the settlement issues to be?

Social Networking Technologies

Mitrano asked “Who said it?”

“Email is for old people” (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
“Email is for formal communications” (an undergraduate student)
“Email is lame” (Mitrano’s young son)

She then polled the audience with the following questions

Who has a page on Facebook?
Who uses some from of social networking in their work?
Who forbids their children to use one of the social networking technologies?

We have a new web era with a new dynamic use of Internet. In this context, we have the new social technologies. Web 2.0, Facebook, YouTube, and others. In a Pew study on the Internet and American life, it was noted that 55% of today’s teens have created a personal space using one of the new social networks. Mitrano shared statistics from the study noting that 48% of teens surveyed visit a social networking site one or more times a day. Most use social networking sites to stay in touch with their friends – both the ones they see frequently and the ones they see rarely and most often they use it to make social plans.

Mitrano recommends "Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation," by Neil Howe and William Strauss as a balance to the previously published “Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled and More Miserable Than Ever Before” by Jean M. Twenge. Is there a culture of narcissism in the “me generation?” Or is the next generation of young people more optimistic and civic-minded? She noted that next generations have been labeled narcissistic in the past and suggested that what is interesting is how technology is being woven into these ongoing debates.

The major issues and “fuss” as Mitrano suggested is that criminals push the technological envelope and noted situations with pedophiles and MySpace. There is a focus on pornography hence the “Child Online Privacy Protection Act.” Criminals will use the law to their own advantage and look for vulnerable children. We must learn and keep in touch with our children over these new technologies.

Mitrano asked “what is it about a computer that lowers inhibitions?”

Absence of physical social cues that conspire to keep behavior in check
Deeply personal relationship with computers, not unlike an analyst relationship
Human computer interaction for those with impulsive behavior creates more excitement for them

She asks if these are reasons to make the technology illegal. If approved, House Resolution 5319 would render all social networking technologies illegal.

Mitrano notes that Facebook was originally set to the .edu domain. However, early press reports of debauched and crude behavior, as well as illegal activity such as underage drinking, and uncivil discourse led to its removal from the .edu domain.

Cornell has created “Thoughts on Facebook” which covers physical safety and personal privacy, marketability and branding, the new architecture for social and technological networking, and appropriate use and privacy policy.

Law and Policy

Mitrano’s Law examples were the Communications Decency Act and individual liability in privacy suits and Policy examples were

Should we prohibit social networking technologies?
Select groups and higher standards of use
Speech codes, free speech and citizenship
Education for appropriate if not propitious use
Institutional transparency: Admissions, Judicial administration, Student life, Campus police?

She was clear that we must be transparent about our uses of these social networking sites and that it is critical that we think seriously about our uses of these technologies NOW!

Uses for higher education may include:

Cool tool for alumni and development

Replacement of course management systems

Electronic mail communications – go where the students are – which is also a user-friendly environment.

Mitrano reviewed electronic surveillance starting with the Electronic Communication Privacy Act [ECPA] of 1986 which was the updated wiretapping act that collapsed telephony and data networking technologies. It had always had a content / conversational component aligned with Fourth Amendment where jurisprudence included as content the “probable cause of criminal activity” and the conversational detail that was “easy access with a subpoena. The problem here is that different technologies offer different content.

The USA Patriot Act was passed October 2001 and renewed in 2006. It was amended to lower the threshold by which law enforcement can get conversational detail.

The standard for content of communications remains the same under the ECPA and FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] and that is “probable cause for criminal or terrorist activity.”

Problems have arisen with improper use of these Acts. There is no central clearinghouse or database for requests and there is no one providing appropriate oversight for there use.

Mitrano suggested that this has meant inaccurate reporting to Congress, no clarity on how many letters have been issued, where the records are for any of the requests or responses, and what has actually been done with them regarding criminal investigations.

She continued that this is not what our founding forefathers intended to be the case of powers in the federal government and we are “out of balance” with what was designed.

Her conclusion was that the IT community can be proud of the ways we have transformed higher education with information technologies to date and we need to be ever diligent to continue think strategically about our continuing role in higher education.

Going a step further she said that Higher Education itself needs to play a leadership role as the dynamic relationships between law, technology, social norms, and the new global marketplace are considered.

The slides for this presentation are available from the Cornell IT Policy Office [http://www.cit.cornell.edu/oit/PolicyOffice.html]

at http://www.cit.cornell.edu/policy/midwestern.2007.ppt

An Interview with Glenda Morgan

mpasiewicz — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 10:39:04 -0600

In this 17 minute recording, we'll hear from Cal State's Director of Academic Technology Research, Glenda Morgan. Listen in as she shares some thoughts about her research into faculty use of technology, intellectual property, and a range of other topics.

Commmittee Releases Updated Paper on Student File Sharing

lgesner — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 15:08:03 -0600

The Joint Committee of the Higher Education and Entertainment Communities has distributed an updated white paper—Background Discussion of Copyright Law and Potential Liability for Students Engaged in P2P File Sharing on University Networks. EDUCAUSE serves as staff to the Committee’s Technical Task Force. View EDUCAUSE resources on P2P/file sharing.