Copyright Fascism
Source: http://www.seoptimise.com/blog/2009/11/open-source-flv-player-embedding-videos-the-no-youtube-way-in-7-steps-tutorial.html
Want to post videos in your password-protected, walled garden of a Moodle virtual classroom? Well, forget it! That’s right, the Association for Information and Media Equipmentis making the following assertion:
Copyright law does include exemptions for professors who wish to use audiovisual media “in the course of face-to-face teaching activities of a nonprofit educational institution, in a classroom or similar place devoted to instruction” — so long as the professor is not showing media that he or she knows has been made illegally. The university said streaming the video on a password-protected Web site, where only students who are registered members of the class can access it, satisfies these criteria.
But the trade group is arguing that a password-protected space on the Web is not a classroom. “The face-to-face teaching exemption allows a video to be played in class, not streamed to the classroom from a remote location,” Dohra said in an e-mail. “As to the fair use claim, when videos are streamed to students outside the classroom, password protection may limit access to some degree. However, requiring a password doesn’t make an infringement fair use.”
Dohra added, “A password that allows access to videos that are illegally copied from DVDs and encoded into a school’s platform is nothing but a password to ill-gotten gain.”
Source: Inside Higher Ed
As I read this, posting a copyrighted video within a Moodle is NO LONGER ALLOWABLE.
What do YOU think? Here’s one perspective….
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First of all how did the copyrighted video make it into a format that could be placed in Moodle? By violating the DMCA and circumventing the encryption to get it into Moodle. So, the law was already broken before even posting it in Moodle. 🙂
WOW! Just had this discussion the other day about how "being behind the curtain… things were ok, just as in your classroom- just don't put them out in the open unprotected".my toolbox is getting tools yanked out of it daily!
I will point out that this assertion is from a trade group and not from a court backed legal opinion. So while they may wish for this to be so, until it is backed by legal decision, it remains one of those growing number of "gray areas." The process employed here is much akin to the strong-arm tactics used by the RIAA and MPAA, which while technically legal still seems rather distasteful. It would be nice if we could get rulings on such tests without the lengthy and costly legal process of criminal or civil proceedings.This for me is the most important part of the article:Existing copyright law does not adequately address the momentous technological advances that have occurred since the law was written in 1976, she said, echoing the refrain of a number of other scholars — including Harvard University’s Lawrence Lessig, who argued the point in a keynote speech at last fall’s Educause conference.“There are very legitimate and important arguments on both sides,” said Mitrano, noting the importance of maintaining strong incentives for the creation of new original work. However, the situation at UCLA is the latest reminder that copyright law needs to be rewritten before it does any more damage, she said. “Copyright has been and continues to be a significant impediment in academic research and instruction,” said Mitrano. “Content owners and higher-education administrators and faculty, together with the associations that represent them, must sit down and figure out appropriate licensing, clearance, and fair use provisions in order not to hamper American higher education, if not global education, in pursuit of its mission.”