Stephen Downes
Stephen's Web
Are you stealing stuff?
The word "may" is the most pernicious word in this whole copyright debate. What "may" be infringing is orders of magnitude greater than what does infringe. If I whistle Dixie I may infringing. By holding people to the standard of "may" you are depriving them of a large body of legitimate actions.If you don't know that an action is wrong, you are making things worse by telling people not to do it.
Instead of informing people about what they can't do, what "may" infringe, show them what they can. Highlight legitimate uses of online materials. Show podcasts and slide shows where the material has been used without complaint by the rights holders.
Leave the enforcement to the lawyers. It is way to easy and far too damaging to run around saying "beware!" "beware!". Adopt an attitude of enabling use, not of preventing use. James Clay, e-Learning Stuff, February 5, 2010 5:49 a.m.. [Link] [Tags: Podcasting, Copyrights, Patents] [Previous][Next]
Comments
Your comments always remain your property, but in posting them here you agree to license under the same terms as this site (Creative Commons). If your comment is offensive it will be deleted.
Automated Spam-checking is in effect. If you are a registered user you may submit links and other HTML. Anonymous users cannot post links and will have their content screened - certain words are prohibited and your comment will be analyzed to make sure it makes sense.