Copyright Strategies in the Networked Environment Andrew Charlesworth, Senior Research Fellow Centre for IT & Law, University of Bristol, United Kingdom

Centre for IT & Law © basics Different traditions Copyright - UK/US - utilitarian/economic - give authors incentive to create. Droit d’auteur - France - moral/creative - protect rights of the author-creator. Utilitarian model tends to be dominant in discussion of creation and use of digital works. concept of ‘social contract’ between author (or rightsholder) and public, controlled by State. Before mass access to digital works © was, even for most lawyers, terra incognito. But terms of ‘social contract’ have always been a source of friction – radio, tape recorders, videos.

Centre for IT & Law © consequences Most © laws provide that: ©holder has exclusive right to do certain things with a work - making a copy, public performance, broadcasting - ‘bundle of rights’ Rights can be assigned, licensed, inherited etc. as a bundle or as individual rights Licensing of © is common – the ©holder grants permission to others to do certain things with the work, but retains overall control of it – lawful use of work is conditional on observance of licence terms. A © infringement will occur when an individual copies an electronic work without the authority of the ©holder or in breach of licence terms.

Centre for IT & Law © enters the spotlight Mass access to digital works changed the dynamics of © Easy access, perfect copies, mass distribution Well financed lobbying by rightsholder groups for greater © protection Music industry, film industry, publishers Results: Term extension © = author’s life + 70 years Reduction in effectiveness of public side of © ‘social contract’ - weakening of fair use/fair dealing Expansion of © legislation to protect digital rights management techniques/mechanisms Rightsholders to willing to stigmatise and pursue legally a wider range of ‘infringers’, ‘pirates’ etc - P2P/MP3 etc.

Centre for IT & Law The Brave New © World Thriving education & research sector needs info. environment with minimum restrictions. Access in the ‘paper’ world was inefficient but was difficult to police for © breaches. Networked environment permits more efficient access & dissemination, but also better fencing & policing by rightsholders. This requires educational institutions to: be more effective at © compliance, enabling efficient access to resources at reasonable cost, and avoiding penalties for infringement; develop strategies for dissemination of the © works they produce, to ensure these remain as accessible as possible to stimulate future teaching and research.

Centre for IT & Law Virtual Learning Environments VLEs play an increasing role in education: Creation of new works Use of existing works Repurposing, mixing & reuse of works Who owns the © in learning objects? How can © in existing works be efficiently licenced/tracked/managed? As well as protecting the rights of others, what rights, if any, do institutions want to protect in their own works?

Centre for IT & Law Institutional Repositories IRs are seen as a key networked resource. But do institutions have the right to place academic/student works in IRs? Employer/employee relationship University/student relationship Publishing agreements Assignment/exclusive licence of rights Pre-print/post print conditions Open access/author pays journals

Centre for IT & Law ePortfolios Considerable work carried out in UK FE/HE on ePortfolios Areas where © ownership issues have already been raised include: ePortfolio system software - esp. in multi- partner consortiums Institutionally-created ePortfolio data - data about students - transcripts etc. Student-created ePortfolio works – coursework, research outputs, PDP materials. Use by students of sponsored research materials in ePortfolios

Centre for IT & Law © strategy Co-ordinated policy stance on © in further & higher education See for example, the Zwolle project Professional approach by educators to the ‘licensing in’ and ‘licensing-out’ of © works Policy & guidance on ownership rights Policy & guidance on use, reuse, and repurposing of third party materials Policy & guidance on assignment and licensing Developing efficient & simple rights registration & rights clearance mechanisms for education

Centre for IT & Law © strategy Wider use of © licensing innovations: Open Source licences & Creative Commons licences Using the © system to keep works publicly accessible/public domain R & D on issues such as: standardised rights metadata for digital objects; uniformity of terms of licensing agreements; a simple rights signalling system for end-users, e.g. acceptable use symbols.