Copyright / Intellectual Property Rights

Academia has a long history of respecting Intellectual Property Rights. As a teacher and/or student you need to be aware of laws that protect owners of intellectual material. Throughout history laws have been passed to protect the works and inventions of individuals and corporations.

Today we are facing new laws that are trying to catch up with technologies that make it possible to share materials on a scale that is truely global. You have no doubt heard of technologies such as Napster, Kaaza, and Morpheus that make it possible to share any type of computer file over the Internet with anyone else. Is this legal?

Below are a few links to help teachers and students better understand what is appropriate and legal use of copyrighted material used in the face-to-face and/or online classroom.

The Copyright Site
http://thecopyrightsite.org/
The Copyright Site is maintained by Dr. Wright and five doctoral students at the University of Alabama.

"After working with both secondary and higher education instructors, Dr. Wright saw that there was a need for copyright information for educators. She realized that the web was the best and fastest access for instructors, and she also realized there were very few sites out there specifically geared toward educators."

The T.E.A.C.H. Act
Source: American Libraries Association www.ala.org
Technology, Education and Copyright Harmonization Act
The T.E.A.C.H. Act was passed in November of 2002 and has helped to clear up some of the gray areas of copyright law for educators.