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Copyright Compliance on Campus: Make It Easy
By Laura Gasaway,
Law Professor and Director of the Law Library,
University of North Carolina
I applaud Diane Barbour’s article “Online
Piracy, Ethical Behavior, and the Unintended Consequences of Technology”
in the 6/8/2005 issue of C2. Of course, illegal sharing of music and videos
by students garners most of the attention—and the concern—devoted
to campus copyright infringement. But adherence to copyright law, particularly
in the use of course management systems by faculty and staff, also is critically
important.
There are three common copyright phenomena on campuses today: compliance, infringement
and, mostly, confusion. I frequently receive inquiries from faculty on my campus
and from institutions around the country seeking guidance on the secondary use
of copyrighted articles and book chapters as they prepare electronic course
materials.
A primary reason for the confusion: Course management systems are used by professors
who typically have not had copyright training. Many know neither what they may
or may not do, nor the legal risks to which they expose themselves and their
universities. The result can be infringement, both accidental and willful. But
sometimes the result can be over-compliance. For example, a course management
system user might pay for permission to reuse copyrighted content within his
or her course materials to which the university already has access under a direct
licensing agreement with a publisher or aggregator. This is an easy mistake
to make because e-journals are licensed rather than sold, and the provisions
of a license for a given publication can be complex. Another common instance
of over-compliance: purchase of copyright permission for the first-time use
of copyrighted materials, which is not always required. (Details on reproduction
of copyrighted works for the classroom under copyright guidelines can be found
at http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/classroom-guidelines.htm.)
A key to overcoming these problems, I believe, is to create easy ways for end
users to follow the law and support creators’ intellectual property rights—using
means that dovetail with the workflow of applications.
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Need to Know
Security Concerns Grow; DR Planning Slow
Campus Computing’s 2005 National Survey on Information Technology
in US Higher Education, released last week, points to a growing concern
about IT security on campus. “College and university IT officials
identify ‘network and data security’ as the ‘single
most important IT issue’ affecting their institutions over the
next two-three years,” begins the executive summary. Notably,
a new survey item reveals that half (50.7 percent) of responding institutions
experienced hacks or attacks on their campus network. The report also
notes that disaster recovery planning hasn’t gained much ground:
“Surprisingly, four years after the September 2001 attacks and
the then very public discussions about IT disaster recovery, only three-fifths
(57.4 percent) of campuses report a strategic plan for IT disaster recovery,
little changed from 2004 (55.5 percent) or even 2002 (53.0 percent).”
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out more.
Sakai Foundation for Open Source
The Sakai Project has announced the creation of a nonprofit foundation
that will provide a permanent home for the community source efforts
of Sakai developers, adopters, and users. Following the Apache Software
Foundation model, the Sakai Foundation launch will keep Sakai software
open for anyone to use, modify, and distribute, even if they are not
among the Sakai Partners. Those who do become Sakai Partners (a contribution
of $10K per year; $5K for smaller colleges) may also participate in
the governance of the foundation.
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out more.
Stanford on ITunes
As announced this past week, Stanford University-related
audio content available via the iTunes Music Store will give students,
university alumni, and the general public a new way to connect with
university resources and information. Among the types of content to
be provided will be faculty lectures, information about campus events
and performances, music offerings from the Stanford community, and podcasts
covering Stanford football. The system will allow restricted access
to course-related content as well as free, public access where appropriate.
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out more.
Datatel Partners with SAS
The new affiliation, announced this past week, will enhance Datatel
implementations with the statistical, analytical, and predictive capabilities
of SAS. Colleges and universities will be able to leverage the business
intelligence and predictive modeling functionalities of SAS using data
held within their Datatel Colleague enterprise resource planning solutions.
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out more.
Sun Announces Solaris University Challenge
Competitors will develop innovative projects using Solaris 10 OS or
OpenSolaris. Open to qualified undergraduate and graduate students,
faculty, and IT staff, the winner will receive $5,000 and a Sun Ultra
20 workstation, along with a whopping $100K worth of Sun products for
their institution.
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out more.
Who's Where
ECS Chair-elect Names
Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius is the chair-elect of the Education Commission of the States. She will serve as chair-elect through the summer, at which time she will succeed Governor Mike Huckabee (of Arkansas) for a two-year term as Chair of ECS. A nonpartisan interstate compact, the ECS helps governors, legislators, and state education officials implement public policies to improve student learning at all levels.
CCC Provost to be Acting President
Upon Camden County College President Della Vecchia’s
retirement this coming February, Raymond Yannuzzi will assume the duties
of the institution’s chief executive officer while a nationwide
search for Della Vecchia’s replacement takes place. Yannuzzi has
previously held top administrative posts at Baltimore City Community
College and Delaware County Community College.
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