WAyne, Thank you f or the detailed and extensive response. I will follow up on the helpful links you provided.
On Sun, Nov 15, 2009 at 6:24 AM, Wayne Mackintosh < [email protected]> wrote: > Hi Mary, > > I see that our WikiEducator family is true to form providing links and > resource people to assist with your copyright questions. Copyright is a > complex topic and especially when transcending international boundaries. > Apology for the long email -- but this post may be useful for future members > of our list with similar queries. > > There are three important questions you need to consider: > > - What does the WikiEducator community consider to be "free content"? > - What is the default copyright of resources you find on the Internet? > - Who is the copyright holder of the materials you create? > > *What does the WikiEducator community consider to be "free content"?* > > WikiEducator subscribes to something called the Free Cultural Works > definition (http://www.freedomdefined.org ). This definition is based on > the essential freedoms associated with the Free Software Foundation. We have > a tutorial which explains our position and provides links to the relevant > sources: > > http://wikieducator.org/Wikieducator_tutorial/What_is_free_content > > There are differences of opinion on the interpretation of the essential > freedoms with regards to educational content -- however our WikiEducator > subscribes to the Free Cultural Works definition (which also includes the > public domain declaration -- which is technically not a license, but rather > a declaration committing creative works to the public domain and you will > need to check whether or not your country acknowledges the public domain.) > > We're in good company as a growing number of OER initiatives support the > Free Cultural Works Definition. These include, WikiEducator, all the > projects of the Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia, Wikibooks, Wikiversity, > Wikinews etc) and the Connexions project. > > The free cultural works definition approves, for example of the following > licenses: the GNU Free Documentation License, the Creative Commons > Attribution License (CC-BY) and the Creative Commons Share Alike License > (CC-BY-SA) as well as the Public Domain Declaration. > > *What is the default copyright of resources you find on the internet?* > > In the majority of cases, you must assume "all rights reserved" copyright > on materials you find on the Internet, even in cases where there is no > copyright statement. In terms of the Berne Convention, of which most > countries are signatories, there is no need to register or assert copyright > on creative works - see for example: > > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention_for_the_Protection_of_Literary_and_Artistic_Works > > > (The Berne Convention attempts to "level the playing field" of national > copyright legislation). > > Many sites will provide a copyright statement or license detailing how the > materials may (or may not) be used. > > With particular reference to http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/ this > materials are all rights reserved. > > While the copyright page provides a few permissions to use the materials at > no cost in restricted circumstances ( > http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/copyright.html ) your freedoms to adapt > and modify the materials are restricted. There is even a clear warning which > states: "This site uses anti-plagiarism software to find other sites who > violate this copyright by reproducing the lessons on their site in part or > whole." -- Clearly breankingnewsenglish.com is not committed to sharing > education materials freely and they have deployed software to police and > make sure that you do not copy and adapt these materials and share them on > the Internet . It would appear that this site is not committed to the > educational values of sharing knowledge freely :-). > > You always have the right to contact the copyright holder to establish > whether they will give you permission to use these materials under a > license, or public domain declaration for the social good of education. I > hope that they will accede to your request :-). > > The short answer to your questions regarding the > http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/ site is that WikiEducators may not > use, adapt or modify these materials :-(. This is why its important for > educators like yourself to help us create equivalents which teachers of the > world CAN use :-) > * > Who is the copyright holder of the materials you create?* > > The next important question is to find out who is the first copyright > holder of the materials you create. This will vary from country to country. > > - First google the Copyright Act for your country --- in most cases > this will typically state that the Copyright of the materials you create > under employment belong to the employer. So for example, in New Zealand > teaching materials created by teachers working in the national education > system belong to the employer, which in our case would be the Board of > Trustees of individual Schools. It may be different in your country. This > would also include teaching materials created after hours with particular > reference to the empoyment agreements of New Zealand teachers funded by the > Ministry of Education. > - There is something called academic exception, which typically applies > to Tertiary Education institutions where certain exceptions may apply where > the original copyright of research publications may vest with the author. > Again -- you need to check your national copyright legislation. > - Finally, you need to check your individual employment agreement which > may specify specific arrangements regarding copyright of the materials you > create. > > There is also something called the "Fair Use" ( > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use ) doctrine which applies in the US, > or "Fair Dealing" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_dealing) which is > used in Commonwealth Countries. This deals with the use of copyright > materials without permission in restricted circumstances. However, as Fair > Use and Fair Dealing pre dated the Internet -- there are many grey areas > concerning the educational use on sites like WikiEducator. > > Two caveats with this information: > > > - I am not a legal professional -- if you want legal opinion, best to > get legal advice :-) > - I'm not making any value judgements about Copyright --- this is an > entirely different discussion. > > Hope this helps > > Cheers > Wayne > > > > > > > > 2009/11/15 Mary <[email protected]> > > Hello everyone, >> >> My name is Mary Ziller and I recently joined your wonderful group. I hope >> to learn a lot with you. >> >> I have a question that I would like to ask the group. I searched the group >> archives on "copyright" and found only one thread that did not answer my >> question: >> >> *How much of a newspaper article can we use for online teaching and face >> to face teaching? >> * >> How does a site like http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/ get the >> copyrights to publish its excellent materials which are based on real news >> articles? >> >> And the admirable works by Susan Heyer *True stories in the news *series. >> How does the copyright law work allowing her to produce ESL books based on >> actual articles? >> >> I would like to write materials using published news articles, but don't >> know how to get the copyrights permissions. Do they have to be purchased? >> >> Thanks for your help. >> >> Mary Ziller >> >> >> > > > -- > Wayne Mackintosh, Ph.D. > Director, > International Centre for Open Education, > Otago Polytechnic, New Zealand. > Board of Directors, OER Foundation. > Founder and Community Council Member, Wikieducator, www.wikieducator.org > Mobile +64 21 2436 380 > Skype: WGMNZ1 > Twitter: OERFoundation, Mackiwg > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "WikiEducator" group. To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
