CDROMs and Copyright Concerns Summary

[Maria Melssen <mariamelssen@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hello,



Many thanks again to all those who responded to my question.  Below is a
summary of those responses.



Best,



Maria



Maria Melssen



Head, Learning and Information Services

College of Medicine, GL-325

Florida International University

11200 SW 8th Street

Miami, Florida  33199

305.348.0680  phone

305.348.0631  fax

mmelssen@xxxxxxx



"Do the CD-Roms come with license agreements? I would think many of the uses
would be addressed in that? I know when I worked for a special education
publisher, we put a comprehensive license agreement on the CD-Roms we
produced that outlines what was authorized and what needed permissions."



"I don't think there is a standard answer here - it all depends on the
licenses that accompanied the CD-ROM materials.  Many of the uses you
describe below sounds like reasonable classroom uses of the materials that
might well be (should be!) entirely consistent with relevant license
constraints. Some uses may be viable as a matter of fair use, but that's a
case-specific inquiry.  Some uses may be explicitly prohibited under
accompanying licenses.  I'd be interested if other commentators have a more
global view of the copyright issues, but I think you need to ask the faculty
in question to look carefully at the materials they purchased and try and
figure out license terms for starters."



"I would contact the publisher of the book.  I doubt you would be able to
use the images on other documents but most likely you can use the materials
on the cd roms for classes.   Once I was able to post some of the materials
from a cd rom on electronic reserves for the students.  I contacted the
publisher for permission."



"You may wish to purchase a copy of the new book "Distance Learning and
Copyright" from the American Bar Association publishing website. It deals
with this and many other similar issues. It has proven quite valuable to me
in understanding this complex area. The link is

http://www.abanet.org/abastore/index.cfm?section=main&fm=Product.AddToCart&pid=5370163.