Supplementary Scenario - Course Sharing and Copyright

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HOST
Welcome to this podcast exploring Canadian copyright law and User Rights. 
In this podcast we will take you through a fictional scenario that illustrates how copyright and Creative Commons licensing influence K-12 educators in their use of educational resources in their teaching. 
Please note that the scenario in the podcast is best understood if listeners know  the definitions of Canadian copyright and Fair Dealing.  
We spoke with Jim Swanson, a Calgary lawyer who specializes in Intellectual Property and copyright law to address the issues highlighted in this scenario.
Please note that although the following material covers Canadian copyright law, it is not to be taken as legal advice. Copyright law is constantly evolving and Jim’s remarks may not be applicable in all cases.
This scenario involves a high school teacher creating a new CALM 20 course online.  Currently in Alberta, CALM 20 is a Career and Life Management Course that covers the topics of personal health, issues related to becoming a young adult, as well as career explorations. 
In this scenario, an online course has already been created by one High school, while a teacher from another high school has access to the course through the Moodle Learning Management System. In the course, there is also a section that is partially remixed from another internet source, but it is not attributed. 
We asked Jim what steps the teacher of the new course will need to take in order to meet copyright guidelines? 


JIM SWANSON
It’s not clear to me as to whether the teacher’s permitted to use the other school’s course. I have to assume the teacher is. And I’m assuming as well there’s some kind of Creative Commons licensing available or the teacher somehow permitted the use of the course by the other school. If not, then the other school may be the copyright holder or the author or authors of the course, whoever they are.And the teacher may need permission from whoever those copyright holders are. Just because it is available doesn’t mean the teacher has permission. 
Now, regarding the unattributed source that apparently forms part of this course, the teacher would want to know more about it and how it’s available. Is it available  under license? And, assuming it is, does that license waive attribution? It might, it might not be necessary to attribute a credit to the work if there’s a license in place that waives that. But attribution is a moral right and failure to give it may be infringement of that moral right. So, the teacher in our scenario here would be using the unattributed materials that are part of this online course at their own risk. To put it bluntly,  it’s no defense to take pirated content if that’s what the unattributed materials is,  from the pirate (which would be the other school) and then say you’re also not liable to the actual owner. Everyone who  infringes is in the same boat essentially. They’re potentially liable to the actual owner of the rights.


HOST
In this scenario if Creative Commons licensing had been part of making the original online course,  the second teacher would feel comfortable and confident about the user rights involved. Depending upon which Creative Commons license was used, the teacher could reuse, revise, remix and redistribute the course with no concern. Because Creative Commons licensing establishes the permissions at the time of the educational resource being shared, the resource becomes part of an open educational endeavour. 
We hope you have enjoyed listening to this podcast and will take some time to explore other podcasts in this series, including additional scenarios featuring K-12 teachers and how their creation and use of educational resources may be influenced by Canadian Copyright Law 
Special thanks  to Jim Swanson for being a part of this podcast series. 
This resource was funded by the Alberta Open Educational Resources Initiative, which is made possible through an investment from the Alberta government.
In keeping with principals of Open Education, this podcast is available under an open license, CC-by-SA.
The music "AM-Trans" and "Cash Rules" is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution, Share-alike 4.0 International license.



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