Copyright - little to do with moodle

Copyright - little to do with moodle

by Timothy Takemoto -
Number of replies: 21

I am very unclear about "fair use" and even less clear in a Japanese context.

I foudn some really nice video files, some adverts for a certian mobile phone producer, that would be really great for English language learning listening materials. Alas such links on the producers site are volatille so I could not just link to the producers site. Also It wouldbe nice to include images on my moodle pages, or to illustrate text resourses, of famous people for instance. I have been trying and failing to get an image of Utada Hikaru for days. The mail address there is overfull.

1) Am I allowed to save, and upload sound, video, and image files to a password protected moodle page for view only by mystudents as part of an educational programme?

2) If I, the publiser or printer do not  make any profit, then would I be allowed to include the image of a famous person in a text book distributed only to classes in my school (sold to the students at the cost of each copy).

The answer to these questions is probably no.

Tim
Timothy Takemoto

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In reply to Timothy Takemoto

Re: Copyright - little to do with moodle

by Art Lader -
Dear Tim,

In the United States, I would refer you to the recently-enacted TEACH Act which permits much more than most people would expect. (Good summary here - http://www.ala.org/ala/washoff/WOissues/copyrightb/distanceed/teachactbest.htm )

Perhaps the same sort of thing exists in Japan.

-- Art
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In reply to Art Lader

Re: Copyright - little to do with moodle

by Art Lader -
Intellectual property concerns actually have a lot to do with Moodle, I think. As we all know, if teachers using Moodle abuse fair use and copyright, the consequesnces can be both expensive and embarrassing.

This is something we spent a lot of time discussing in a beginning Moodle course that I taught in June, because some teachers were simply scanning pages from workbooks and uploading them to their Moodle sites. (Of course, this is very different than the situation you describe, Tim.)

-- Art
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In reply to Art Lader

Re: Copyright - little to do with moodle

by Jill Kaminski -

Thanks, Art!

On my password-protected pages, I've been doing this because it made common sense. If I can read a story to my face-to-face students, then I should be able to "read" it to them online as well. But I don't want to post it for the whole world to see.

Now I'll have a lot less guilt! smile

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In reply to Jill Kaminski

Re: Copyright - little to do with moodle

by Art Lader -
You are welcome, Jill.

It's almost weird to me that such a logical, reasonable approach to fair use actually became a law.

And Moodle should always be a guilt-free obsession. Go ahead, have another serving!smile

-- Art
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In reply to Art Lader

Re: Copyright - little to do with moodle

by Joyce Smith -
Art,

Art,

Thanks for that interesting 'link' most comforting !  Have you perhaps seen the FFE (trademark) ? (link provided)

It comes from Dr Roger Clarke from the ANU (here in Oz)  who is one of the champions of open source also , no more patents !!

His pages are well worth a read if you have a few hours to spare ! In particular for anyone studying E-Business!

I was particulary impressed with the FFE , although must admit I have not seen it on too many pages as yet ! Seems to me to be a really good solution to the worries about copyright infringements for the educational community!

From my personal experience, academics are more than happy to give permission for the use of their content we might discover on the net ,if we only ask !

And, of course we give them the recognition that they deserve on our sites correct referencing etc. ! Otherwise, forgetting  Copyright , its blatant plagiarism , and just not cricket! 

On-line instructors want their students to submitt their own work for assessment, not just a heap of copied essays from the internet !

 So, we as course designers/teachers should obviously show leadership in sticking to the rules and ALWAYS,ALWAYS , reference the work of others that we may use , with their permission !!

The Moodle Exchange is a great place , as you mentioned, for peer review , to maybe check each other out , to ensure we are playing cricket ?  Not just the best flashy site

(kick me if thats goingto far !!) 

Domain names came up recently in a thread also, e.g. someone asked if they could use moodle in their domain name ?

Great to see the request !! i.e. not just going and doing it !! Brands/Trademarks  are earned , ask Coca-Cola or MacDonalds ! And, Martin !

 

The more Moodle the better ... UNLESS it misleads people into thinking that the site is an official Moodle site (then I get mad).

A link on the home page to moodle.org using the standard logo is all you need to keep me in my happy place. big grin

Free for Education home page

Free for Education logoTM

The Free for Education mark indicates that material may be freely used for educational purposes. The mark may be applied by anyone to any material in which they own the copyright provided they agree with the conditions set out in these pages

 

Does the mark just apply in Australia?

No, anyone can apply the mark and anyone can use FfE material subject to the conditions described.

 

Welcome to Roger Clarke's Home Page

 

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In reply to Joyce Smith

Re: Copyright - little to do with moodle

by Art Lader -
Dear Joyce,

I am on my way to the airport now and will be home by tomorrow. I will certainly take a look at this then.

Thanks!

-- Art
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In reply to Joyce Smith

Re: Copyright - little to do with moodle

by Art Lader -
Dear Joyce,

I have had a chance to look at the FfE info and I think it is a great idea! I do not know why I didn't know about this already.

I will certainly begin including this on many of the resources that I create.

Thank you for the tip. If you have any more tips like this, please post them. smile

-- Art
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In reply to Art Lader

Educational -Vet Community in OZ

by Joyce Smith -
Hi Art,
Thanks,
We have a great educational community down here in Oz
LearnScope"
So many great resources in there ! You can browse through , can't 'post' unless you join as a member . Have a look at the LearnScope Projects & then OpenSource CourseWare Project , from our Hunter (Newcastle area) Tafe (Moodlers in there too! in the sharing spirit

Joyce smile
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In reply to Joyce Smith

Re: Educational -Vet Community in OZ

by Art Lader -
> We have a great educational community
> down here in Oz...

That really does seem to be true. Over the course of the past couple of years, I have come to really admire what you all have accomplished in distance learning.

I will look at the resources you have posted and am sure there will be a few gems there for me.

Thanks, Joyce. smile

-- Art
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In reply to Joyce Smith

Re: Educational -Vet Community in OZ

by David Lamotte -
Joyce,

You need to take a little bow for your part in spreading the word.

It has amazed me what a bushfire you and your fellow presenters have started from our little get together the other week.

As a long time Open Source user I was well aware of the maturity of the products and their benefits. I guess it needed people like yourself to supply the enthusiasm.

To see the key people in our "Inovative Learning Centre" throw away their "Internet Exploders" fills me with joy. Pity that our IT section can't keep up.

Well done,
David (a fellow Novocastrian Moodler)
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In reply to Art Lader

Re: Copyright - little to do with moodle

by David Scotson -
A similar concept is the Creative Commons project:

http://creativecommons.org/

However it has a wider focus than just education, aiming itself at all kinds of content producers (photographers, illustrators, musicians and writers etc.). This means there is a greater fund of non-education specific resources to draw from.

They also offer a small family of related licences so that those who wish their work to remain as once piece can choose one licence, and those who are happy to have their work sampled, collaged, translated or built upon can choose another.

They also have an information page aimed at educators:

http://creativecommons.org/learn/artistscorners/educators
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In reply to Timothy Takemoto

Re: Copyright - little to do with moodle

by koen roggemans -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Translators

Normaly, no one will make a problem if you use material that is freely published on the internet if you mention the source/author.

Adverts are never a problem, since the adverteer will like what you do (ogen wijd -> publishing his advert)

Persons is something different. If the person is a public figure (politician, singer, actor) then the image of his/her face is "public domain" and you can use ist freely. From a private person (e.g. a student, someone you interview on the street and want to show a picture from..) you can't publish the image. You must have explicit permission.

That's the way things go around here, but I think it is a quite international "way to behave" when publishing.

So the answers to your questions are probably yes cool

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In reply to Timothy Takemoto

Re: Copyright - little to do with moodle

by Don Hinkelman -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers
My answer is "Yes" you can do both of the above.

I realize it is grey and each country has laws which can be interpreted many ways. I think with content, if you use it for your classes privately and are not selling access to the site, you can use it as "fair use".
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In reply to Don Hinkelman

Re: Copyright - little to do with moodle

by Timothy Takemoto -

The problem with the famous people is that while their face may be non-copyright, the photo, taken by a particular photographer is.

There are a few photographers on the Internet that allow use of their photos of famous people but I do not happen to know of a photo of Mr. Children or Utada Hikaru. The photos that are on the Internet are probably quite famous.

I just had a session with a local printer who was trying to persuade me to ask permission before using photographs of buildings within my university! Ouch!

I realised that in addition to the photos of the two famous people, I also have photographs of several shops in town. If I have to get permission from all of the shops this is going to take ages.

I think that it should be a lot easier to use these things inside a course where those that have access only have access during the course. However textbooks remain.

It is the textbook that is the real headache.

Tim

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In reply to Timothy Takemoto

Re: Copyright - little to do with moodle

by koen roggemans -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Translators

What about using picteres that are published in  online magazines, newspaper etc ? (http://images.google.be/images?q=Utada+Hikaru&ie=UTF-8&hl=nl&btnG=Google+zoeken)

About the pictures of the shops: I would be happy that a picture of my shop is on the internet or in a tekstboook (in positive daylight of course smile )

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In reply to koen roggemans

Re: Copyright - little to do with moodle

by Timothy Takemoto -

Image from the internet (and the Google image search) are genearally copyright. This does not stop me using them in in-class powerpoint presentations but in a printed textbook... I heartily recommend

http://www.istockphoto.com

http://www.clipart.com
is also recommended by someone else.

There are also quite a few photographers on teh intternet that will let you use their photos.

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In reply to Timothy Takemoto

Re: Copyright - little to do with moodle

by Marcus Green -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers
You may be pleasently surprised ang be given permission if you ask, particularly if you explain the context.
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In reply to Marcus Green

Re: Copyright - little to do with moodle

by Timothy Takemoto -

Thanks Marcus, and everyone
I will have to start asking. There are a lot of chain stores and other big companies to be asked so I had better start asking soon. Also I will have to translate it all into Japanese since the companies are Japanese and the text is in English.
Tim

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In reply to Timothy Takemoto

Copywrite - Language Teaching CD included with text

by Sean S -
Slightly related to this topic, I am wondering if it is within fair use to upload mp3's taken from the CD that is included iwth a language textbook that all of the students are required to purchase?

What if I use mp3's from a book the students do not have access to, but I have purchased. It would be like me photocopying a couple of pages to use as a supplement to another textbook/
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In reply to Sean S

Re: Copywrite - Language Teaching CD included with text

by Don Hinkelman -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers
Good question. In my case, I also teach a language class with a textbook.  I take the accompanying Teachers' CD full of .wav files and transform them into mp3 files. Then I upload the files into Moodle and use them as resources or links from Quiz questions. I especially like the easy-to-use Flash buttons that I get when I enable multimedia filters. Makes great listening quizzes.

All of my students purchase the textbook and I believe it helps the publisher to sell books and as such is fair use. I have not contacted the publisher yet about what I am doing, because I want to make it an elegant, exciting site first and then show them. They tend to be skeptical of things when presented a idea theoretically, but supportive when they see concrete benefits.  I would encourage you to do the same.
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In reply to Sean S

Re: Copywrite - Language Teaching CD -Companion Websites

by Joyce Smith -
Just another thought, if your text is from the Pearson group , there are a number of companion websites for students to access , that include quizzes and additional materials.
There are some good ones for modern languages on there!
"Companion Websites for Textbooks"

Joyce smile
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