Copyright

I have now had a chance to read some of the copyright materials and think about the Creative Commons approach.
I am one of those who have been quietly wondering for years about the legality of some aspects of our copyright for course materials I use. I have read the Copyright rules for staff, and had some of my materials accessed for CLL audits a couple of years ago.So...I am a bit familiar with them as they apply to print media.

But, it was interesting (and disturbing)to see that the Internet rules are actually more restrictive in some ways.

Different countries also clearly have different rules - even the Clarhouet chapter in the text (Canada) pointed out that people think Canadian rules are the same as US, which they are not. the Univ Of Auck guidelines and the CLL website are not very reassuring about e-resources.


With my group of learners (distance students, some not at all keen on electronic approaches) they also want - really, truly want, a big bundle of readings so they dont have to download everything on their slow rural connections. This seems legally ok under CLL as long as the amounts are limited.
However, the University is not at all keen on this - they want to save paper & transfer costs to students I guess.

The Creative COmmons approach seems extremely sensible and already there are some medical resources relevant to me who have opted for free access to their materials.