Definitions
Copyright is the legal protection of any creator's tangible work. Title 17 U.S.C. defines the legal boundries of copyright including:
Copyright Law protects the rights of the creator for any current and potential use to
Purpose
The Fair Access Working Committee is developing voluntary guidelines under the concept of "Fair Use" (Title 17 U.S.C., Section 107) that apply to multimedia materials created by educators for noncommercial uses in educational settings.
History
The CCUMC (Consortium of College and University Media Centers) Fair Access Working Committee is the result of the June 1994 "Educational Fair Access and the New Media National Conference" in Washington DC. The purpose of the conference was to bring together representatives of the educational communities, government agencies that deal with copyright, and copyright holders to discuss the issues resulting from the greater and easier access to information as digital technology expands. The Agency for Instructional Technology co-sponsored the conference.
Membership
The Fair Access Working Committee is sponsored by CCUMC (Consortium of College and University Media Centers) and is chaired by Lisa Livingston, Media Director at CUNY, and Ivan Bender, counsel to CCUMC and a copyright lawyer.
The CCUMC Fair Access Working Committee membership has been open to interested parties. Faculty and administrators, representatives of educational organizations, and copyright holders are on the committee. The areas of print, music, video, software, motion picture, telecommunications, authors, illustrators, photographers, artists, and television are represented as is the Creative Coalition, National Endowment for the Arts, National School Boards, Association of Research Libraries, etc. Mary Levering, Associate Register for National Copyright Programs in the U.S. Copyright Office has been working closely with the committee.
Process
The Fair Access Working Committee first met on September 30, 1994 in Washington DC with Lisa Livingston and Ivan Bender chairing the meeting. The committee has continued to meet in Washington DC and for the last year, it has been meeting monthly. We have spent a lot of time in our meetings understanding the other viewpoints and developing words we can live with and understand.
The first few meetings were spent looking at examples of multimedia instruction, talking about how teaching and learning have changed with the new technology, and reviewing what has been happening to copyright holders as copying has become easier. Then, as wording was proposed, the committee looked at the impact on education and on copyright holders. The committee has been using a concensus process based on compromising and wordsmithing.
On a parallel course with the Fair Access Committee has been the NII (National Information Infrastructure) hearings which are examining copyright in light of the Internet and the new technologies. Lisa and Ivan also meet with the NII working committee each month, but the multimedia guidelines are somewhat independent of that process.
Key Points
Some of the basic assumptions of the Guidelines are
Copyright Holders' Concerns
Copyright holders have major concerns about the effects of copying without permission because of the impact on
Other sites
A number of other copyright web pages can be found by doing a search for copyright. One that looks interesting because it covers some of the hot issues involved with the digital technology and internet is the Copyright Website.
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