{"id":3747,"date":"2019-05-29T17:00:41","date_gmt":"2019-05-29T16:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/media-and-learning.eu\/?p=3747"},"modified":"2019-11-22T14:48:10","modified_gmt":"2019-11-22T14:48:10","slug":"copyright-media-and-learning-a-long-standing-relationship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/media-and-learning.eu\/type\/featured-articles\/copyright-media-and-learning-a-long-standing-relationship\/","title":{"rendered":"Copyright, Media and Learning: a long-standing relationship"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Copyright law has always had a close\nrelationship with media and learning. The world\u2019s first copyright statute \u2013\ncommonly referred to as the Statute of Anne 1710 \u2013 was \u2018An Act for the\nEncouragement of Learning\u2019. As stated in the preamble, the Act was enacted to\nprevent unauthorised printing and for the \u2018Encouragement of learned Men to\ncompose and write useful Books\u2019. In the 300 years that followed the Statute of\nAnne, copyright\nlaw had to adapt to rapid technological developments<\/a> which made copying<\/a>\neasier, faster, cheaper and more and more accurate. Think of cameras, photocopiers,\nhome recording devices, smartphones and social media: copyright law had to\nadapt (and still tries to adapt) to all these technological innovations without\nlosing its original function: to encourage learning and the spread of knowledge\nwhile preserving economic and moral rights of authors and creators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The need to strike a balance between\nincentivising the creation of new works and allowing the public to learn from\nand disseminate such works is one of the main reasons why copyright law is so complicated.\nThe way the copyright system tries to achieve its immediate goal \u2013 to\nincentivise the production of new works \u2013 is exclusivity: copyright law gives\ncreators a set of exclusive rights to allow them to control the use of their\nwork and so earn from it. In this context, \u2018exclusive\u2019 means that copyright\nowners can exclude<\/em> others from using\ntheir work without first getting permission. In a sense, copyright is the right\nto say \u2018no\u2019 to anyone who wishes to copy your work. It is evident how\nexclusivity clashes with the ultimate goal of the copyright system: the\nencouragement of learning and the dissemination of knowledge. If copyright\nowners had absolute control over their work, the production of new works may be\nincentivised but their dissemination would be extremely limited. In order to\navoid the creation of monopolies over the use of creative works, copyright law\nputs limits on the exclusive rights granted to creators. First of all, copyright\ndoes not last forever<\/a>: in most countries, copyright expires 70 years after\nthe author\u2019s death. Second, copyright\ndoes not protect ideas<\/a>, but only the expression of ideas. Also, certain\nuses of copyright protected works are allowed without permission because they\nare considered to be socially, culturally, politically or economically\nbeneficial. These are known as copyright\nexceptions<\/a> and \u2013 among other things – allow the use of copyright works for\ncertain educational purposes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Copyright in Education. Original illustration by Davide Bonazzi for CopyrightUser.org<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So there are basically three ways to use media\nin education and training without infringing copyright: i) using media that are\nnot protected by copyright (e.g. because their copyright term has expired or\nbecause they were not protected by copyright in the first place); ii) using\ncopyright protected media with permission from the copyright owner (e.g. under\nthe terms of an educational licensing scheme or open licences such as Creative\nCommons); or iii) using protected media under copyright exceptions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The combination of educational licensing\nschemes and copyright exceptions should mean that teachers and students do not\nhave to worry about seeking permission every time they want to use a copyright\nwork for educational purposes. However, both licences and exceptions have their\nlimits. On the one hand, using works under educational licences is safe but\nreusing protected materials in the creation of new work (e.g. mash-ups or video\nessays) is usually not covered by the licence. On the other hand, exceptions potentially\nallow more extensive uses but relying on them to use protected works involves\nrisk management considerations. In fact, benefitting from exceptions often turns\non interpreting concepts that are ambiguous and situational, concepts such as\n\u2018fairness\u2019 or \u2018illustration for teaching\u2019. Teachers dealing with copyright\nissues don\u2019t like ambiguity though, they want black or white answers (e.g. \u2018how\nmany seconds or minutes can I use from a film?\u2019). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Learning on Screen, we want to encourage\nthe lawful use of moving image and sound in education \u2013 both under licensing\nschemes and copyright exceptions \u2013 by providing authoritative and\naccessible guidance on copyright and creative reuse<\/a>. Using innovative multimedia\nresources<\/a>, we help teachers and researchers understand the educational and\ncreative possibilities offered by the law with a view to enabling them to make\ninformed decisions on copyright issues. We believe that the ambiguous concepts\nembedded in the legislation should be interpreted in a way that reflects\ncurrent teaching and research practice, and the education sector should play a\nrole in defining these concepts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Join us for a discussion on \u2018Law and the\neducational video producer\u2019 at the Media & Learning 2019: Video in Higher\nEducation conference. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note: in the spirit of the conference, most\nlinks within this article are to educational videos about copyright!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Author
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bartolomeo Meletti<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Copyright Services Delivery Manager<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learning\non Screen<\/a>, UK<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Copyright law has always had a close relationship with media and learning. The world\u2019s first copyright statute \u2013 commonly referred to as the Statute of Anne 1710 \u2013 was \u2018An Act for the Encouragement of Learning\u2019. As stated in the preamble, the Act was enacted to prevent unauthorised printing and for the \u2018Encouragement of learned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3756,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,275],"tags":[154],"class_list":["post-3747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-articles","category-higher-education","tag-copyright"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/media-and-learning.eu\/files\/2019\/05\/bigstock-Copyright-Intellectual-Propert-293580439.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Sally Reynolds","author_link":"https:\/\/media-and-learning.eu\/author\/sally-reynolds\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/media-and-learning.eu\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/media-and-learning.eu\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/media-and-learning.eu\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media-and-learning.eu\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media-and-learning.eu\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3747"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/media-and-learning.eu\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5070,"href":"https:\/\/media-and-learning.eu\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3747\/revisions\/5070"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media-and-learning.eu\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/media-and-learning.eu\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media-and-learning.eu\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media-and-learning.eu\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}