Copyright issues in schools

[Ian_CUP]

We at EB have been asked to advise an all party political group on copyright issues within the education sector. The long term idea being to make it easier for the sector at teacher and pupil level to understand what they can or cannot do with digital content and the copyright laws that surround it.

 

I have been asked to provide some evidence of schools encountering problems, either a small telling off or major legal action. Anonymity is not a problem but the APPG would like some hard facts facing schools.

 

We are one of the publishers giving our side which is mainly around misunderstanding due to the complexity of the majority of license agreements.

 

If you have any specifics around this could you post your experience or send me a message? I do recall reading a thread a while back about a school who was sent a large bill for using images on their website but can no longer find it.

 

thank you

 

Ian

[webman]

I think this is the thread you mean: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/web-development/18154-getty-images-request-payment.html

[Ian_CUP]

thank you webman, - that is indeed the one, - I have just sent a PM to the originator of that thread.

 

Any more information would be gratefully received, - the idea of this is to help all of us with what is seen as a bit of a mess, - and the Digital Britain report did not tackle or mention the issue from an education point of view.

 

Ian

[webman]

No problem.

 

I understand completely where you are coming from. My colleague (bossman) tried to get a definitive answer on what we could and couldn't do (as far as copyright was concerned) with material from the Internet. It was very difficult to track down, so it's something that is quite likely (or should be) a concern to other schools.

 

The most important factor probably being the educating of staff and students as to what is allowed.