Policy Brief- Issue 2

The issue of Copyright in the use of internet in my school

Overview :
Copyright applies to all material posted on the internet in the same manner as it does to printed/published material. Therefore any work posted to the internet is automatically protected by copyright laws irrespective of whether it is registered or not. However there are two exceptions….
i) if the work is posted to the ‘public domain’ i.e. the author explicitly releases his/her work to the public domain
ii) if the ‘copying’ or ‘reproducing’ is for ‘fair use’(allowing use without permission for purposes like commentary, parody, news reporting, research and education so long as the use is ‘limited’ and does not harm the commercial value of the work…. Making ‘intent’ an important consideration in the act of ‘copying’.)
Hence we must remember to take the following measures, in order to ensure that we are not infringing on the copyrights of material published on the internet, whenever we copy/reproduce either a part or whole of it, irrespective of our purpose.
1) cite the source of the internet resource
2) check carefully for any prohibitive or restrictive notices posted there
3) seek written permission from the author if possible ( There are formats and forms freely available on the internet for this purpose.)
4) try to rewrite the ‘text’ content in our own words
5) establish that we are not violating any copyrights by using specialized software.

Current Status in our school :
Our school being one of the departments of an independent academic institution, is automatically governed by the institute’s policies on the issue of copyright in the use of internet. And the policies are well formulated and clearly defined, due to the ongoing research and development taking place here. However, it should be noted that majority of the teachers and students of our school are totally ignorant of the importance of this issue and the precautions they need to follow while using internet resources.
Also it would be difficult to understand and implement the institute’s policies ( which are framed in rather intimidating legal and complex syntax) in the context of our school. We therefore need to formulate policy guidelines relevant to our context.



Policy Recommendations :

1) The school should constitute on priority basis, a committee/ task force of teachers teaching different grade levels and subjects in charge of the following tasks ..
a) Framing guidelines in respect of ‘ensuring that copyrights are not violated in using internet resources’, phrased in an easy to understand manner, highlighting explicitly the possible consequences of non-compliance
b) reviewing them periodically so as to keep them updated.
c) displaying copies of the guidelines prominently at points/locations of internet connections and copying machines

Pros- This will promote the compliance of copyright policies by students and teachers.
Cons – Since copyright laws in the internet context are continually expanded or modified, the task of updating the guidelines could involve an expenditure of time and effort ( scarce commodities in a school environment) by the teachers in charge.

2) At the beginning of the school year, (possibly at the first PTA meeting) the school should circulate handouts of the guidelines to parents and require them to sign consent forms on behalf of their wards, to guarantee compliance on the part of students.

Pros- This will create awareness on the part of parents and could protect the school to a certain extent in the event of a potential breach of copyright.
Cons- Parents usually tend to sign consent forms either without reading or because they feel that it is obligatory to do so. This could defeat the very purpose of the consent form, which is to address the issue of copyright in internet use.

Reference-
http://mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/copyright-internet.htm
http://www.doe.virginia.gov/VDOE/Technology/AUP/home.shtml
http://www.umuc.edu/library/copy.shtml