Copyright Law for Digital Learning

I last wrote here about Copyright Law for Digital Teaching and Learning in 2015.  Since then, new legislation has been enacted - the Copyright and Other Intellectual Property Law Provisions Act 2019.  

The new Act implements some of the recommendations of the Copyright Review Committee in 2013, and is particularly strong in implementing the education provisions.  The Committee's members were Eoin O'Dell, Patricia McGovern and Steve Hedley.  

I was asked to give a talk at a seminar today for the Irish Universities Association Enhancing Digital Teaching and Learning in Irish Universities #IUADigEd.  I've made the slides available here.  I've also produced an updated version of some of the relevant sections of copyright legislation.  

There's a lot to take account of in making decisions about what is permissible copyright-wise for digital learning.  If the work you wish to use is a literary work (broadly defined) or an image which is an integral part of a literary work, then a college needs to abide by the Irish Copyright Licensing Agency licence, but bear in mind that a new licence will be produced for the next academic year.  

[Update:  the new ICLA licence is now available:  see here and here.]  

However, if the work is, for example, a video (referred to as a "film" in copyright law), then one can rely on the new broad exceptions in section 57A and section 57B.  Section 57A on 'distance learning' applies to all students in a  college, not just those taking online courses.  It allows the video to be communicated "as part of a lesson" to a  student by telecommunication.  

In the slides, I refer to the very useful work in this field by Jane Secker and Chris Morrison in the UK (here and here) and by Teresa Nobre for COMMUNIA (here and here).  See also Eoin O'Dell's recent post on Coronavirus and copyright – or, the copyright concerns of the widespread move to online instruction. 

At European level, we are watching closely the implementation of the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive, in particular Article 5 on "Use of works and other subject matter in digital and cross-border teaching activities."   In Ireland, the Department of Business Enterprise and Innovation is dealing with the national implementation of the Directive.  This Department will shortly be renamed as the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.  It is possible that responsibility for Intellectual Property might be transferred to one of the other renamed Departments.  

Catherine Cronin also spoke at the same seminar, discussing OER and OEP: Open licenses for digital Teaching & Learning.  She emphasised why Open Education is so valuable (under Access, Equity and Pedagogy headings).  Her slides are here. 

A video recording of the seminar is available here.  

We have a list of resources related to the seminar here.  

Copyright Law for Digital Teaching and Learning event

We held an event on Copyright Law for Digital Teaching and Learning in May 2014 and here is a brief report:

Funded by:
National Forum for Enhancement of Teaching and Learning - www.teachingandlearning.ie.

Theme:  Teaching for transitions - assisting learners in the transition from conventional learning to blended learning or e-learning

Date:  15 May 2014

Link to recording:  http://bit.ly/CDTL-15

Link to slides: http://www.slideshare.net/dariuswirl/presentations

Link to Storify: https://storify.com/dariuswirl/copyright-law-for-digital-teaching-and-learning-ma

Hashtag: #copyrightdtl   -  https://twitter.com/hashtag/CopyrightDTL

Pictures: https://www.flickr.com/photos/dariusw/sets/72157644862628692

Blog Post:  http://irishlawblog.blogspot.ie/2015/07/copyright-law-for-digital-teaching-and.html

Speakers:

Dr Louise Crowley, School of Law, University College Cork
Mr Jason Miles-Campbell, Manager, JiscLegal, Glasgow
Dr Eoin O'Dell, School of Law, Trinity College Dublin
Dr Darius Whelan, School of Law, University College Cork

Key insights from the day:

• In online learning materials, it is better from a copyright law perspective to direct users to find the material themselves rather than providing a copy to them
• The current educational exceptions regarding copyright are very narrow
• The Copyright Review Committee has made important proposals to update the law, but these have not been implemented
• Staff should familiarise themselves with the requirements of the Irish Copyright Licensing Agency (ICLA) licence.
• It can be valuable for an institution to have one team or central unit dealing with copyright
• If using images licensed under Creative Commons, it is important to always use proper attribution

Key contributions from the seminar to the broader Forum outlined theme: 

The seminar advised participants how to create learning materials (for blended and online modules) which comply with Irish copyright law and create assessment tools which comply with copyright law. It developed awareness of developments such as Creative Commons, Open Educational Resources and open source software.  It assisted participants to communicate relevant requirements of copyright law to learners who take part in modules.  Knowledge of these topics will enhance the abilities of participants to provide online or blended courses and enable learners to transition from conventional learning to e-learning.

See also the summary of the day by Caroline Rowan of University of Limerick

Picture by Pat Rice