Transcript Why is IP around copyright and educational materials so hot today

The Concern
There is an inherent and growing tension between a legal
and popular culture that is moving rapidly toward a pure
property view of ideas and an academic culture that is
premised on the free exchange of ideas.
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The Concern
There is an inherent and growing tension between a legal
and popular culture that is moving rapidly toward a pure
property view of ideas and an academic culture that is
premised on the free exchange of ideas.
Nowhere is the acceleration of the “pure property” view
more evident than in the recent history of copyright.
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200 years of copyright on one slide!
In 1790
– It was the rare work that was protected
– What was protected was for a short duration
– Open was the default--Protection required action on the
part of the author
Today
– Protection is the default and requires no action on the
part of the author.
– virtually everything is protected including, but not
limited to…Poetry, prose, computer programs, art,
movies, videos, written music, recorded music, plays,
photographs, web pages, letters, faxes, PowerPoint
presentations, and the list goes on.
– And that protection lasts—forever
Bottom line, if it involves a whit of creativity and it is
“fixed,” it is probably protected by copyright.
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In 1790, copyright was clearly a brilliant scheme to foster the
sharing of ideas. It did that by balancing the financial
interests and rights of the author with the public’s right to
access.
In 2008, the balance is gone and copyright has become
almost exclusively about protecting property rights.
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As goes the law, so goes popular culture...
Consider “The Proud Family”
Consider American Association of University Presses’
response to Google Book scanning
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Closer to home...
• Who “owns” lecture notes?
• Who “owns” data and does that ownership include the
right to determine when and whether analyses are
published?
• Who “owns” the product of student/faculty collaborations?
• Who “owns” software and who gets to determine whether
it is open sourced?
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Will we survive, much less thrive, in a world where everyone
believes that protecting their intellectual property is job one?
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Ok, but what does all of this have to do with
Blackboard?
– The same aggressive expansion of property protection
that has been going on in copyrights, has also been
going on in patents. It has just taken a different form.
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Consider MODB Patents
– Amazon.com patent #5960411 (1999) -- “One-click”
buying
– Priceline.com patent # 6041308 (2000) -- “Buyer
pricing”
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Which sets up Blackboard’s current claims
and a world in which many of us
–
–
–
–
Are incredulous
Feel betrayed
Feel threatened
Are confused
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Which sets up Blackboard’s current claims
and a world in which many of us
– Are incredulous
– Feel betrayed
– Feel threatened
– Are confused
…which brings us to Bruce.
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