Re: FW: digital-copyright Digest 2 Sep 2004 15:00:00 -0000 Issue 415

[Edward Barrow <edward@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thursday 2 September 2004 19:42, Alice Ruleman wrote:
> In response to  Valerie Lang's question:
>
> We have a policy, instituted by our IT Dept., whereby faculty who post
> course material on electronic reserve are unable to view the material they
> post online.  In addition, our Instructional Media Center administrators,
> who actually post the materials, are also prohibited from online access.
>
> Valerie,
>
> The information below is from Univ. of Texas copyright site on e-reserves.
> Number 1 is especially pertinent to your question.  It gives access to
> students, faculty & IT staff.
>
>  ACCESS AND USE
> (http://www.utsystem.edu/OGC/IntellectualProperty/rsrvguid.htm)
> 1. Electronic reserve systems should be structured to limit access to
> students registered in the course for which the items have been placed on
> reserve, and to instructors and staff responsible for the course or the
> electronic system.

When developing licensing schemes for this type of use in the UK, we were 
anxious NOT to impose such a restriction on universities.  It seems to me 
that should a student wish to access material recommended for another course, 
it runs entirely counter to the spirit of a university education - broadening 
the mind etc - to prevent such access.  In practice, of course, it's hard 
enough to get the students who ARE registered actually to read the material!   
Technical restrictions like this are possible but the risks (to rightsholders) 
that they address are minimal.  We found that rightsholders initially 
favoured the imposition of registered-student-only restrictions but mostly, 
after some reflection, accepted that on balance they achieve little.

Instead, we suggested that licensed e-resources should be accessible by all 
faculty and students of a university, with the fee metric (where applicable) 
based on the number of students for whom the material is required or 
recommended reading.

-- 
Edward Barrow
Copyright Consultant
edward@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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