From CUNY Academic Commons

Subject Matter Coordinators

Introduction

This page and related pages contain information and links to resources relevant to the use of copyrighted materials in unrestricted, publicly accessible environments as well as in academic, teaching & learning settings (where access to content may be restricted to faculty, staff and students).

Commentary

Lessig – Free Culture, Copyright and the Future of Ideas

Creative Commons founder and Stanford professor Lawrence Lessig is giving his final presentation on Free Culture, Copyright and the future of ideas. After 10 years of enlightening and inspiring audiences around the world with multi-media presentations that inspired the Free Culture movement, Professor Lessig is moving on from the copyright debate and setting his sites on corruption in Washington.

History of Mashups

A work-in-progress clip from OpenSourceCinema.org, a collaborative documentary project to create a feature film about copyright in the digital age.

Resources

CUNY Materials

• iTunes U Presentation – Copyright & Fair Use.ppt – This Powerpoint presentation was given by Jane E. Davis, Esq., Assistant General Counsel, CUNY Office of Legal Affairs at the pilot-project launch meeting on April 11, 2008.
• Copyright Materials A primer on copyright from the Office of Legals Affairs and the General Counsel.
• Do I need permission? Information from the Office of Legal Affairs and the General Counsel on the TEACH Act, Fair Use and guidance on determining how copyrighted material can be used.
• CUNY Intellectual Property Policy
• File Sharing and Copyrighted Material (CUNY Office of the General Counsel and Vice Chancellor for Legal Affairs)
• Interactive Guide to Using Copyrighted Media in Your Courses (Baruch College)

The TEACH Act

TEACH (“Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization Act” ) says it is not copyright infringement for teachers and students at an accredited, nonprofit educational institution to transmit performances and displays of copyrighted works as part of a course if certain conditions are met. If these conditions are not or cannot be met, use of the material will have to qualify as a fair use or permission from the copyright holder(s) must be obtained. Links to toolkits, checklists and additional commentary on the TEACH Act can be found here.

Fair Use

Fair use is a doctrine in U.S. copyright law that places limitations on the exclusive rights of copyright holders under certain conditions. An overview, additional information on what fair use is, what constitutes a fair use of copyrighted material and guidelines can be found here at the Copyright Clearance Center, Consortium of College and University Media Centers and at the U.S. Copyright Office.

Creative Commons

The Creative Commons organization, in their words, “… provides free tools that let authors, scientists, artists, and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry. You can use [Creative Commons licensing] to change your copyright terms from “All Rights Reserved” to “Some Rights Reserved.” Click here for more information. See also: Creative Commons: A New Tool for Schools, Howard Pitler

Miscellaneous

• MIT Open Courseware: Intellectual Property Clearance Process
• Video, education, and the law – best practices: A video selection from the three day symposium Video, Education, and Open Content: Best Practices: Production, Distribution, Technology, and Law held May, 2007 at Columbia University
• The Copyright Advisory Network of the American Library Associaition: links to many resources on various topcs including Copyright Basics, Education and The TEACH Act, Fair Use, International Copyright, Licensing, Locating Owners and Seeking Permission and Statutory Law.