Thursday, October 08, 2009
Professors Claiming Copyright Over Their Lectures
Techdirt: "It's always struck me that the strongest supporters of copyright law run into a lot of problems when it comes to educational institutions. After all, the whole purpose of an educational institution is to share knowledge and information as much as possible and continue to impart those ideas to others."
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6 comments:
There are two very interesting points of view here, yet it brings up another question in my mind. Why isn't the University claiming rights over a professor's lecture. The school usually holds the rights to all student and faculty projects done on university time, so why do professors hold the rights to a lecture done in class? Yet if the university holds the rights, then isn't any member of the university entitled to use the protected material? so students could use that lecture in the ways outlined int his article. All in all a very interesting concept. In a similar vein to last week's IP discussion, the idea of copyright is important, but it seems to be getting out of hand.
The issue I have with professors wishing to copyright their lectures is about the pursuit of knowledge. I believe the educational experience to be about taking in as much as you can from as many resources as possible, and expanding upon what you have learned. How can one be expected to grow when the roots of your experience aren't solidified when the year is over?
I understand why lecturers don't wish to be discredited of their professional opinion and knowledge, but as a student, I can only see it as harming to tear away what I hope to use for the rest of my life. Because really, what is knowledge than expounding upon the basics?
I understand the points of both sides and see the validity in both sides as well. Personally, I am of the opinion that professors have the right to copyright their lectures, but under the spectrum that everyone at the university have free access. After all, so many professors here at cmu post their lectures online. If they were copyrighted only for the use of those in the class, then they should be protected in such a manner.
A few weeks ago, when typing a question into google, a lecture from a CS professor at CMU popped up. This type of sharing of lectures is great for the pursuit of higher learning and the model should be embraced.
Wow, This seems so weird thinking of a professor doing this since, like the article said, academia is meant to help spread knowledge as much as possible. I can only that is some professors begin to do this, either less people will attend that university of at least the class. Basically, this is saying that students would have only the length of the course to learn all the things that were taught in lecture permanently. What if you forget something and want to look at your notes? Didn't you just waste money then?
While I do not know exactly how I feel about the legality of copyright and intellectual property in regard to this content, I do find trouble with an educator who would find any kind of problem with a student using the knowledge that they bestowed upon the student.
Education should be about sharing information, and while I do not believe that a student should take a lecture and teach it exactly the same way (although if they are able to do it, that is highest praise to the teacher... right?). If the student is able to take the information gained in the lecture and apply it to something they are doing, this is simply validation for the success of the teacher and should only be seen as such.
Weird....it shows the discrepancy in copyright law that in order for a lecture to be copyrighted, it must first be recorded. The recording then embodies two different copyrights - the copyright of the notes and the copyright of the physical recording. It's the entire question of the medium being protected versus the content.
Professors work hard on their lesson plans and I understand wanting to protect that work. On the other hand, in an institutional setting, the exchange of information and ideas often underlies the idealistic foundation of the organization to begin with.
It sits wrong with me, morally, to insinuate charging for something that should ideally be shared across as many people as possible. I know we charge for tuition and materials and to pay the professors, but hoarding knowledge as one would hoard cans of beans for Y2K is just...silly. Is that really what educational institutions want to be doing?
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