The Pros and Cons of an 'Educational Fair Use' Lewis Hyde, Berkman Fellow, speaks on "The Pros and Cons of an 'Educational Fair Use' Project" http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/interactive/events/luncheon/2008/02/hyde

Description

In this video The Berkman Center for Internet and society of Harvard University and Dr. Lewis Hyde are discussing the problems with the laws, guidelines and practices related to fair use in education. Dr. Hyde speaks of the historical and current confusion around fair use in education and the negative consequences that such confusion has created for professor and instructor in higher education. The impact as Dr. Hyde discusses can be found in areas such as free speech, academic freedom and the quality of instruction. At the same time, Lewis Hyde is calling for an educational fair use project to be conducted by educators who will have small groups that will use their classrooms and instructional needs as guidelines to determine what should or should not be fair use in education. Such a project will then be used to negotiate with owners in good faith and with the goal of community service in mind.

Analysis:

Dr. Lewis Hyde from the Berkman Center for Internet and Society of Harvard University is in this video advocating for changes and measures to prevent owners from eroding fair use, free speech and academic freedom. In his presentation, Dr. Hyde effectively documents the history that brought fair use to this point of conflict while at the same time attempts to clarify the laws that regulate copyrighting. Professor Hyde's presentation also very clearly describes step-by-step the guidelines that one could use in order to conduct a project for fair use in education.    

http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/resources/publications/code_for_media_literacy_education/ :

Discusses fair use in media literacy education, appropriate uses for educators and students of fair use when it comes to using copyrighted materials in order to teach media literacy.  It also clarifies what benchmarks are as used by lawyers and judges to decide what is fair use as well as the myths and facts about fair use in the classroom. Finally, it encourages educators to be leaders, not followers in the process of establishing the best practices of fair use in education.

Analysis:

The article is aimed at educators with the purpose to educate teachers about the guidelines of fair use in the classroom.  The principal goal of the article is to encourage educators to use technology in the classroom and to contribute to the current dialog and process of establishing best practices in fair use in education and  in particular media literacy. The underlying goal of the article is to call on educators (uses) to participate in the conversation about fair use in order to create an environment where all educators feel more comfortable using the media and therefore, have students and the public in general take advantage of the benefits of media literacy.

"ALA | Editorial Statement," American Library Association, .
http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=Distance_Education_and_the_TEACH_Act&Template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=25939 (Accessed July 22, 2009)

Summary

This article is published by the American Library Association: The text is a summary of the laws and regulations in the TEACH Act (Technology, Education and Copyright Harmonization Act). It discusses how The TEACH Act replaces section 110(2) in regards to copyright and fair use in the Distance Learning environment. The article also highlights what is new in terms of Copyright and fair use for Distance Education as well as what is problematic about the new laws. It is also an attempt to clarify ambiguities within the law and point out areas of improvement as it replaces section 110(2). The article also presents a brief summary of copyright law and closes with the roles of instructors and librarians.

Analysis

The American Library Association ALA presents a really well organized and clear summary of the changes taking place in copyright law in the area of distance education. It provides librarians, instructors and the general public with a quick review of the historical facts as well as the most updated information. It also provides a definition of the TEACH Act and within such a definition a comparison between the previous regulations guided by section 110(2) and the current provisions of the TEACH Act. It summarizes for the reader what is new, what is the same and what is problematic about it. The article is problematic as it is almost mandating a series of guidelines to instructors while perhaps taking the role of librarians as gate keepers a bit too seriously.  In the end although the ALA does a great job in summarizing and describing the laws, it is going a bit too far when it comes to "instructor's duties".