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Educators learn about tougher copyright law
Gasaway, who has spoken extensively and has written widely on copyright, spoke to faculty, students and staff about Copyright, Faculty and Fair Use at UDs Trabant University Center. Its easier for us to infringe, but its also easier for us to get caught, Gasaway said. The nature of computers is that they make a copy when you are looking at it on the screen. Gasaway said the Technology, Education and Copyright Harmonization (TEACH) Act protects the fair use of copyrighted material for teaching, scholarship and research, but distance education through digital transmission still faces significant restrictions. Gasaway said tougher legislation was welcomed by the music industry, which has been fighting illegal sharing of digital files on the Internet for several years, but its negative impact on education is now being felt. What we thought in 1995 was that it would apply only to digital music, Gasaway said. We didnt think about all the implications of the web and how it would affect teaching. The law requires that any copyrighted material used for teaching be used only in a classroom setting, and any material posted on the Internet should be password protected to limit access, Gasaway said. Gasaway advised faculty members to familiarize themselves with the law, limit the amount of work they copy and post only clean links to trusted sites, such as those run by government, libraries and selected corporate sites. The smaller the portion you copy, the more likely it is to be fair use, Gasaway said. Gasaway, who serves as the virtual scholar-in-residence for the Center for Intellectual Property at the University of Maryland, said the copyright law appears to favor large corporations at the expense of teaching. What Im seeing is the government paying attention to these huge corporate copyright holders but not to fair use, she said. We have a responsibility to educate the community about the Copyright Act. For more information on the subject, visit Gasaways web site [http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/gasaway.htm]. Article by Martin Mbugua To learn how to subscribe to UDaily, click here. |