Teaching and Technology E-Portfolio

Information related to copyright that I have learned relates to the fact that posting Email is technically a violation. I frequently receive emails that I forward on to others. I was under the impression that posters implicitly grant permission to copy.

I try to effectively apply copyright law in the classroom, especially through electronic reserve of journal articles and Blackboard links/posts. Following the law has become a bit tricky with the passing of the Digital Millennium Act (1998) for distance education. Sometimes I'm not quite sure what is protected and what may be exempted. I had a class that included digital text editions and found it difficult to ensure those who accessed it were authorized to do so. Works in this format are so much easier to disseminate than previously done.

I'm not certain how the university handles enforcement of fair use guidelines. Many faculty are not fully aware of the laws or interpretations. We have had issues with some on CONFU with our electronic reserves system and with course packs that were improperly provided to students. We've also have issues with proper application of the TEACH Act. One case in point – a faculty member wanted to show an audiovisual work – the whole thing. Not only must it be related to the curriculum, it's supposed to be only limited to clips of reasonable and limited proportion. Who polices this? Is it up to the librarian to go beyond merely pointing this out to faculty when they use our facility to do so?

One question I still have about copyright is why don't works that have been fixed in a "tangible form of expression" have protection? It would seem to me that if somebody gives a speech/presentation (impromptu or otherwise) that isn't recorded or written but that someone in the audience takes very thorough notes on it and use parts of the presentation, that is infringing on the rights of the original work of that "author".