Alternatives to copyrights

Copyrights and Licenses are part of intellectual property measures that are generally applied by law to protect creative works that have economic value.

Types of IPR's

They are generally of three types:

Patents: A legal protection granted by the government offering an exclusive right to make, use and sell an invention for a specific period—20 years in many African countries.
Copyrights: A legal protection granted by the government offering an exclusive privilege to authors to reproduce, distribute, perform, or display their creative works.
Trademarks: This is a word or symbol used by manufacturers to identify goods.

Why IPR is popular

Intellectual property becomes popular with technology as technology can enhance and or diminish the value of an intellectual property which means ….

Fair use Policy

In considering whether to use a resource or not, teachers need to be aware of the principle of fair use. This principle states that one should not deprive revenue to the creator of a particular intellectual property item and should advance the cause of learning. There are four factors to be considered in determining whether or not a particular use of a copyrighted work is fair: Purpose and character of the use - (non profit educational use vs. commercial purposes)‏ Nature of the copyrighted work Amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the work as a whole Effect of the use upon potential market for value of the work.

Generally, the use of materials for criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research are considered fair use. It is important also to consider the purpose, nature, amount and substantiality, and the effect of the use on potential value of work.

Copying copyrighted materials

One can copy materials that have been copyrighted if they are using the materials for their own scholarly research, in teaching, or preparing to teach a class. Multiple copies (one copy per student in a course) can be made if it meets the criteria of brevity, spontaneity, and cumulative effect and if each copy contains a notice of copyright. Isn’t there a limit to the % of a publication?

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There are also alternatives to copyrights. They may be in the form of:

Licenses – Creators can retain copyright but allow people to use content under certain terms. For example, the copyright can give TVET institutions or schools to use content for free and without permission. Example: (http://www.creativecommons.org/)‏ Open License – Others can use but must credit original source. Further, any version that others create must also have the open license and be useable by others as well. Example: (http://www.wikipedia.org/).

Open Licenses

There are a range of Open Licences for content. The most commonly used are the Creative Commons (CC) licences. This section of the module will briefly introduce you to Open Licences. To get an idea how many people/issues are involved in Open Licences, watch this video is a visual representation of the diverse culture that subscribe to open licences. You may click on this link (http://creativecommons.org/videos/a-shared-culture ). Many institutions are using OER. Please visit this link to read more on institutions that are using OER.

Open Educational Resources

To find OERs on the internet you have to check the licence under which it has been published (cc-by-sa (share alike), or attribution, for instance, indicate it is an OER). There are different kinds of facilities and services available online that are linked to Open Educational Resources (OER) in some form. See this link (http://col-oer.weebly.com/module-4---the-oer-landscape---how-to-find-oer.html ) for more information on where to find appropriate OERs that you can use.

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