Another Copyright law in the works

Florida Representative Ric Keller has introduced the Curb Illegal Downloading on College Campuses Act of 2007. This act would enable the US Department of Education to introduce and expand anti-piracy efforts on campuses.

A good use of taxpayers dollars? You decide. Here's a link to a blogger who thinks not.

Another good copyright summary

If you have students post to forums, usenets, listservs, blogs, etc, it might be useful for them to read a copyright warning from such a source. Here is a useful debunking of several copyright myths in plain language. Its location on a sports forum might make it more accessible to students.

Notice to Everyone posting

Students protect their copyright

You may have heard of Turnitin.com, a service designed to catch plagiarism. Many schools subscribe to the service. They check a paper against a huge database of other papers to see if the work is original or not. Well, a few students whose work became part of that database have sued Turnitin.com for violation of their copyright. Interesting stuff.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070330-high-schoolers-turn-in-plagiarism-screeners-for-copyright-infringement.html

Math videos on Google

Ok, this is not strictly related to copyright, but is pretty cool and you should know about it. Pearson education and Google have teamed up to make math videos available to the masses. You can link to these videos from your website or blackboard classroom and have the ability to provide great content that is no work for you. What could be better?

Well, it could be better if it were all free - students can purchase the lectures for 99 cents to $3.99 for lectures and textbook chapters. There are some free lectures available as well.

These kinds of lectures can be especially useful for folks who have math components in their non-math classes and need some way for the folks who need extra help to get it without taking up class time.

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/03-22-2007/0004551474&EDATE=

Fair Use - Use it or lose it

This article is from last year, but sets out an interesting argument about the chilling effect of copyright protection. The examples given are on satirical artistic expression.
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3066

FAIR USE Act

If you were at my workshop on Monday, you learned about the prosed FAIR USE Act. Here is a little more information about it from a critical perspective - http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=6270

If you missed the workshop, you're in luck. We are offering it again early in Spring quarter. Keep an eye out for the announcement.

Digital media, ethics and law

Here is a handy explanation of ethical and legal issues around the use of digital media from the University of Michigan - http://www.umich.edu/~policies/digital-media.html

Google violating Copyright?

Google's motto is "do no evil", yet compaines like Micrisoft and Viacom, are accusing Google of that very thing through it's "overbroad" reading of fair use. What do you think?

http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Microsoft_Google_Violates_Copyright/551-79672-643.html

Insurance for Documentary Filmmakers

Copyright has been challenge for some documentary filmmakers. Now an insurance company has teamed up with Stanford Law School's Fair Use Project to protect filmmakers against claims of fair use violation.

http://sev.prnewswire.com/entertainment/20070227/AQTU03927022007-1.html

Art and Copyright

Here is an artist's report on a copyright conference of the New York Bar Association and the College Art Association titled "Reexamining Appropriation: The Copy, the Law, and Beyond." Interesting reading!