RE: Re: Distribution of personal study guide

From: Roland Cole <cole[_at_]spi.org>
Date: Fri, 27 Jan 2006 15:20:00 -0500

In further refinement of my earlier comments, I agree that the illustrative purpose in 17 USC 107 is "teaching," not "educational use" and the fair use balancing should take that into account. Also, there are copyright management rules under the DMCA that require note of the copyright owner, but nothing requiring citation of an author, unless he or she is the copyright owner. But plagiarism is its own standard, and a scholar - whether student or teacher - is expected to give credit to others not just for copyrightable expression (like copies of words or images), but also for uncopyrightable ideas if they in fact came from someone else. One may use courts to enforce anti-plagiarism rules on some theory of "fraud" or "unfair practice," but the rules and principles involved are separable from the copyright rules and principles.

Roland J. Cole, J.D., Ph.D.
Executive Director
Software Patent Institute
5315 Washington Blvd
INDIANAPOLIS IN 46220-3062
317-727-8940; cole[_at_]spi.org; www.spi.org

-----Original Message-----
From: CNI-COPYRIGHT -- Copyright & Intellectual Property [mailto:CNI-COPYRIGHT[_at_]cni.org] On Behalf Of David Bozak Sent: Thursday, January 26, 2006 12:40 PM To: CNI-COPYRIGHT -- Copyright & Intellectual Property Subject: [CNI-(C)] Re: Distribution of personal study guide

Michael Graham wrote:
> This would arguably be a fair use if "educational" and not distributed
> for profit. However, "it's according" too to the nature of the images.
> A better, safer course for the student would be to link to the original
> art he copied.

Agreed. My first response, though, is it is not alright. The student has created his own study guide for personal use. Cool, nothing wrong with that.

He wants to distribute it and the college is involved somehow? I don't understand the situation well. If the student wants to give his friends some

CDs he burns, why is the school involved?

So what is the fair use situation? I'm having a hard time understanding how a person (student or otherwise - we're ALL students, aren't we? at least in the school of hard knocks) who wants to give someone else a CD (or 30 others?) is educational? How is that different than me giving my neighbor a CD? Is that "educational'?

If the student is involving the school, then I'd expect some care on the school's part. At a minimum I'd just link to originals. No, maybe at a minimum I'd insist (if I were the school) that a full citation to all work NOT original with the student in question be included. Otherwise it is plagiarism, skipping the copyright issue. And the school shouldn't be in any

way involved with promoting that.

The student is giving away CDs? to 30 other "interested" students? are they coincidentally the next class to take the course? Is he/she going to do this

every semester - I'm sure there is a pool of continually interested students? On the face of it, with the school's involvement, I'd want links to the originals.

I'd find this a great opportunity for this student and other "interested" students to learn about intellectual property and obtaining permissions...

-dab

-- 
David Alan Bozak      Associate Dean, Arts & Sciences      ________|________
dab[_at_]cs.oswego.edu      SUNY Oswego, Oswego, NY 13126        ___\__(*)__/___
   315.312.2156         http://www.cs.oswego.edu/~dab             o/ \o
     "When cryptography is outlawed, bayl bhgynjf jvyy unir cevinpl."

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Received on Sat Jan 28 2006 - 01:20:00 GMT