Inside Higher Ed | January 26, 2010
In the latest clash of copyright law and instructional technology, the University of California at Los Angeles has stopping allowing faculty members to post copyrighted videos on their course Web sites after coming under fire from an educational media trade group.
The policy, enacted earlier this month, has been planned since last fall, when the Association for Information and Media Equipment – a group that protects the copyrights of education media companies – charged the university with violating copyright laws by posting the videos to the password-protected course Web pages without the proper permissions.
So far, UCLA is the only institution the organization has accused of such infractions. However, Allen Dohra, its president, told Inside Higher Ed that it is prepared to take on other colleges if it becomes clear that similar practices are taking place elsewhere. We have leads in terms of other universities, and we do plan to investigate further, said Dohra.
While the university maintains it has violated no laws, it has agreed to temporarily halt the practice while it tries to reach a settlement with the association. We don &t want to litigate an issue that could potentially be resolved outside of the legal system, said a university spokesman.
For more on the story see:http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/01/26/copyright
Article in The Chronicle for Higher Education