Chapter Seven: Owning the Past?

Did you copy this right?

What Rosenzweig and Cohen (seriously, I'm going to start calling them Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, my brain cannot wrap around their names!!) really seem to be telling is that it is almost impossible to know whether a work (since 1923) still has an existing copy right or not, and for them it really doesn't seem to matter. They don't exactly let historians off the hook in allowing for the "fair use" of copyrighted work, but they like others (( )) make strong arguments for historians to utilize the "fair use" argument or that it will disappear entirely. They also offhandedly say that the keepers of the copyright are not necessarily looking to come after lowly, poor historians working on the web, and that there are certainly exceptions being an educator and making educational resources available (although there certainly is a difference between working in a gated community for students only, and publishing a website for the wide world to see). 

There is certainly a tension between academics aggressively protecting their own works, and then on the turn around trying to use other works. Although, and I think Cohen and Rosenzweig point this out, that really historians and other academics are afraid of plagiarism and having their ideas stolen, not the accredited, cited use of their works. By aggressively defend their works, it flies in the face of the "educator's exceptionalism." It also devalues the idea that education IS and CAN ONLY BE from a collective and sharing community.

If we just think for a minute about what education is, we find that teachers and other educators are sharing their own ideas to students and learners who take that information and synthesize it in new and exciting ways, making it their own -- that they can then share.

The rules of "fair use" are (AND ALL MUST BE MET, NOT JUST ONE):

• “The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes” (nonprofit educational uses are more likely to be fair as are those involving criticism, commentary, and parody); 
• “The nature of the copyrighted work” (uses of creative and unpublished works are less likely to be fair; uses of factual, published, and out-of-print works are more likely to be fair); 
• “The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole” (the smaller and less “central” the portion used, the more likely it is to be fair); 
• “The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work” (using out-of-print works and works for which there is no permissions market is more likely to be fair). 

Some of the exceptions that educators can use are:

"As such, the TEACH Act offers what one legal scholar calls “the best legislative solution to the barriers that copyright law imposes on online education that educators can hope to achieve in the near future.” But on the other hand, the law subjects you to some significant and stringent limitations. For example, only accredited nonprofit institutions qualify, access must be limited to enrolled students in the context of “mediated instructional activities,” and institutions must take steps to “reasonably prevent” the unauthorized retention and dissemination of copyrighted works presented online."

The provide a number of quick and easy resource as starting places to see if a work is covered by copyright law.

http://www.copyright.cornell.edu/training/Hirtle_Public_Domain.htm#Footnote_1
http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/public-d.htm

One of the things that I certainly noticed. which dated the text, was the discussion of audio podcasts. These are free to the internet, and are of particular importance I think for my project. What I'm thinking about doing is a website that is a "Scientific Revolution" online information and lecture resource. Something that I can use one week, in my Western Civ survey course, but that can be expanded.

We were talking last week about having a whole website designed around a course, with links, lectures, audio, video right there. And more specifically taking that and making an app out of it for a whole semester course, filled with units one would then work through. Certainly there are going to be copyright issues there. I was already thinking about composing emails to the podcasts I use most often and asking permission, but another thing that I got from this chapter was:

Better to beg for forgiveness, rather than ask for permission.