TechIntersect

You read the headline correctly. Copying is not illegal… provided that the owner of the copyright give their consent to have the work copied. That’s the kicker. It is not necessarily a straightforward process either.

I am not an expert in copyright. I have merely had a passing interest in what is happening with copyright for several years now, extending back more than a decade when I first discovered the open source software movement.

Teachers Should Know This Stuff

Earlier this week, I read a very sad tale of a teacher who did not fully understand copyright, especially those aspects pertaining to open source software and similar usage licenses. Long story short, the author of the aforementioned tale receives an e-mail from a school teacher accusing him of illegally distributing software to her students. Not taking this accusation lying down, the author shares the e-mail on his blog and a firestorm of controversy ensues. The Linux community is outraged and direct it’s ire towards the teacher.

(Let’s just say that to have Linux lovers mad at you is not a good thing. Just ask SCO Group, Inc which tried to claim ownership of Unix technologies used in Linux, and implemented a licensing scheme that would require Linux users to pay for the priviledge of using Linux. SCO filed for bankruptcy last year.)

At least the author of the controversial blog post had the class to apologize for what he had done after the teacher contacted him for an explanation. The blog author is even taking steps to protect the identity of this teacher after being offered huge sums of money to identify her. His intent was not to assassinate the character of a teacher, but to defend himself against a clearly wrong accusation, and it got out of hand as these thing often do thanks to the power of the internet. A less scrupulous person could have made this teacher’s life a living hell!

Teacher, Teach Thyself!

There is growing concern that copyright law as it currently exists is stifling creativity. The current system provides for fair use, but people using content legally under the fair use guidelines still must defend themselves against large corporations with deep pockets if they ever get sued.

To educate yourself, I recommend starting with the Creative Commons licensed e-book “The Public Domain” by James Boyle available for free download. I also recommend the book “Free culture : how big media uses technology and the law to lock down culture and control creativity” by Lawrence Lessig.

I plan to require my students to read Chapter 8 of “The Public Domain” to get themselves up to speed on Creative Commons and GPL licensing. If nothing else, do yourself a favor and read that. You don’t want to accidentally find yourself falling into an alligator pit, like the teacher I described earlier!

Tags: copyright, creativecommons

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