Library talk:Copyright Resources/Student Copyright Guide/Why Should I Care

Please add your feedback on the following:

• The scenarios/myths about copyright. Which ones do you think would be most important to address? Are there any myths about copyright that are prevalent among your peers (that you are aware of) that we have missed?
• Reasons to care about copyright. Which of the "reasons" we've brainstormed are most compelling to you? Can you think of other reasons to care?

Please click reply on this message to add your comments and THANK YOU!

One of the myths that I seem to hear a lot is that if it doesn't say "copyrighted" or doesn't have the C symbol than you are free to use it. But my understanding is that something has to explicitly say "creative commons" for it to be used.

Thanks for sharing this, Gill! Agreed - this is a common myth and one that makes sense to address!

Other scenarios/myths/questions to consider:

- is violating copyright the same thing as academic plagiarism?

Reasons to care about copyright:

- violations affect professors and departments (its my understanding that departments receive a financial penalty)

- direct ways that the changes with Access Copyright affect students (i.e. cost of course packages, use of media in the classroom, professors may no longer be able to upload readings to Vista, etc)

- Many students are very engaged will the recent debate surrounding the SOPA law in the US and similar debates happening in Canada at the moment. I think the way to make this issue resonate with students is to invite them to discuss, debate and engage with the topic. If we use social media to ask questions like: "how do you feel about copyright at UBC?," "how should the University control access to copyrighted material?," "do you agree with UBC's stance towards Access Copyright?" I think we can generate strong student interest

Other resources:

- I think it would be valuable to include a guide on how to find creative commons content (for example: searching by licence type on google images or flickr) - I don't think many students are aware of the resources on copyright.ubc.ca (I wasn't until a few minutes ago)

Thanks for your comments, Nick. An image guide is in progress - which will have specifics for how to search/ cite an image licensed for re-use through creative commons.

It's our intention that we would incorporate and student guides to copyright issues on the learning commons website - we plan to develop the resources on the wiki so that they can be embedded (republished) in a variety of places - making it easier for students to find and access the resources.

We really appreciate your input and will be asking again as we progress in the development of this resource.

Possible scenarios for use in the Why Should I Care? resource:

• Staying legal with images on a website (image guide)
• Creative Commons
• Public Domain: What is Public domain?
• mashups: I am preparing a piece with images, music and film clips, what do I need to know?
• Dissertations
• Multimedia assignments : I need to do an assignments that is a video. What music can I use?

Possible structure

• mythbusters approach - common myths applying to copyright.
  • It's on Google Images-so it's free to use!
  • I'm just using a song as a background in my video and that's OK.
  • If I only using a few seconds of a song I don't need to worry about copyright.
  • I'm doing a tutorial and using screenshots, but I took them so they are my property, I don't need to worry about copyright.
  • I'm found a great website and made mine just by copying the code - it's visible so I can use it.
  • My prof didn't mention copyright, so I don't need to worry about it.
  • I'm a student so copyright doesn't really apply to be.
  • I'm not publishing anything so I don't need to care about copyright.
  • I'm not making money off it, so I don't need to worry about copyright.

• it's good academic practice. Cite don't steal.
• you would want your original or creative work acknowledged, wouldn't you? Do unto others...
• potential to build collaboration and incentives to share. Share and share alike. (creative commons, trackbacks, notifications).
• it's good digital citizenship http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_citizen.

• employers want to know you are following good practice
• students are hired to produce work on behalf of the university
• fine print on your contract with the University (obligation as a student)
• students engage in activities that require knowledge of copyright: preparing presentations using images, writing reports, video with music, etc. (scenarios?)
• students have rights as copyright holders
• co-op students need to know about employers expectations re: copyright

What might we want to gather?

• work-study office may have number of students employed .
• number of students on co-op.
• number of undergrad TAs

• Canadian copyright laws are different from the U.S. (local copyright law is always predominant).
• emailing an article may be a breach of copyright

I found a few resources with this theme that could be helpful to review:

• http://www.baylor.edu/copyright/student/index.php?id=56582 Not for content (U.S.based) but for ideas about presentation. Scenarios may be something we want to look at?
• combined copyright/academic integrity resource: http://nclibraries.niagaracollege.ca/content.php?pid=213238&sid=2032868

Note:

• http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/6423/125/
• McGill news editorial: http://www.mcgilldaily.com/2008/09/editorial_copyright_this/

and http://www.mcgilldaily.com/2012/03/ontario-universities-criticized-for-new-copyright-agreement/