Declaration of Internet FreedomWe stand for a free and open Internet.

We support transparent and participatory processes for making Internet policy and the establishment of five basic principles:

Expression: Don’t censor the Internet.

Access: Promote universal access to fast and affordable networks.

Openness: Keep the Internet an open network where everyone is free to connect, communicate, write, read, watch, speak, listen, learn, create and innovate.

Innovation: Protect the freedom to innovate and create without permission. Don’t block new technologies, and don’t punish innovators for their users’ actions.

Privacy: Protect privacy and defend everyone’s ability to control how their data and devices are used.

Via techdirt.

I have written in previous posts about my fear that the Liberal Arts are losing their relevance in the eyes of society. In this TED talk ¹ Liz Coleman, president of Bennington College, highlights some of the things I have been thinking about the state of many Liberal Arts colleges. While I do not think that things are as dire as she makes them out to be, I do think that Wooster’s curriculum needs to change. We need to have more inter-disciplinary courses. It strikes me as odd that we offer over 400 courses a semester and yet less than 20 are inter-disciplinary. I’m not sure if our current curriculum was designed to address the principles she highlights (Rhetoric, Design, Mediation, Improvisation, and Quantitative Reasoning), but I would like to see us revisit the curriculum with an eye toward increasing inter-disciplinary work. I hope President Coleman’s remarks make you think about the nature of a Liberal Arts education and whether we have strayed from the path.

Video for The future of the Liberal Arts

Woodentity

Holden Hall Room 205

Westminster 2005-2006: Debauchery, Douchebaggery and Mayhem

“My Life at Wooster” Project

Our topic today is deep-linking. A Texas 5th Circuit Court judge ruled in December that SuperCrossLive.com was violating copyright by linking directly to audiocasts of motorcycle racing rather than linking to the main page of the SFX Motor Sports site. The Judge said this practice did not constitute a “fair use” of the material. Does this mean anything for professors who link to images and stories on the New York Times’ site? Should I be telling them not to do this in their Moodle courses? I’m not sure. What do you think? Is an instructor doing this “fair use”?

The full article is here.

Minimizing Legal Risks in Digitization Projects

• Copyright
• Some things to keep in mind: ADA, NAGPRA, HIPAA, Rights of Publicity, Deeds of Gift
• Privacy, Censorship, and Pornography

PCLED

• Physical
• Copyright (applies to all)
• License (applies to signing parties)
• Encryption (DRM, passwords)
• DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act-illegal to tamper with technological protection measures)
• Exceptions
  • The big one is the exception allowing film and media studies professors to break protection on DVDs

It appears that before we digitize the IS projects we must make sure that the Catalogue has always said that the College can do whatever it wants with the ISs. If it has not, then we must contact the authors or the heirs to get permission. We should have students sign a non-exclusive perpetual license with the College. This might be put in the Catalogue and made very explicit to the students. Or we could have the students sign something just for IS.

We should check to see if we are insured possibly “advertising injury” against copyright infringement. Use of disclaimers and there are examples at http://memory.loc.gov and a take-down policy. Things which are not subject to copyright: Facts, Recipes, Ideas, Dedicated Work, Government Work, Expired. Copyright metro will guide you through the use of media in the classroom. TEACH allows the use of something like Moodle for video and audio delivery.

Anyway, I am in Pamona (a very nice area with mountains all around) at a NITLE sponsored workshop on copyright. I ran into Peter and Eric from the ITLAC conference in 2005 and have had dinner. The discussions start tomorrow but I’ve already got a lot out of it in the form of handouts which lead to the Copyright Information Center. This is a treasure trove of all things copyright. The two most useful documents so far appear to be the

• Public Domain Chart
• Fair Use Checklist

but there are a lot of other interesting looking things. There is also the flow chart for determining if permission is required (adapted with permission of Mary Minow).

I look forward to the discussions tomorrow.

The Seattle Post Intelligencer ran a story in its business section on Nov. 20th with the title “Professors get ‘F’ in copyright protection knowledge.” The main beef comes from book publishers who are upset that a growing number of professors are using excerpts and in many cases large excerpts of texts to create course packs and not requiring students to purchase books. It is another “fair use” interpretation issue. I am sure this will be on the agenda for the copyright workshop at Claremont.

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