Recording and sharing the processes and results of intellectual explo- ration is the foundation of the academic enterprise. Students who can suc- cessfully navigate this universe have developed some degree of understand- ing of how academics and other researchers create knowledge and of the impact that such information has on their own participation in the stream of intellectual exploration.
ASSESSING COMPLIANCE WITH INFORMATION
students (rather than relying on campus policies) to deter the illegal trading of copyrighted material across campus networks, it is imperative that univer- sities begin to address these issues more proactively with students.12 Institu- tions must work to strike an acceptable balance between policy, the law, and personal and communal ethics. This begins with raising the consciousness and awareness of students and faculty through formal discussions of informa- tion use issues and institutional policies.
Central to the constitutional incarnation of copyright is the idea of pro- moting the development of scholarship through respect for the work of others. Performance indicator 5.2 asks students to work within and respect this environment. When students navigate, research, and create in the open universe of the World Wide Web, they should do so with the understanding that most of what they encounter is copyrighted, whether it carries stated au- thorship and copyright notice or not.
Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution states: “Congress shall have the power . . . to promote the progress of sciences and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive rights to their respec- tive writings and discoveries.” Title 17, the copyright law of the U.S. Code, has expanded this original view greatly throughout the years. An author’s rights now include the exclusive right to copy, distribute said copies, prepare derivative works, and perform and display a work publicly.
These rights do not remain pure, of course, and are open to negotiation, legal interpretation, and codified exemptions. The copyright world is, well, messy. With what was often seen as a moral right increasingly codified, authors and creators can parcel out their rights and sell portions off to pub- lishers or whomever. Perhaps of greatest concern here is the fair use exemp- tion, which allows the use of portions of copyrighted creative work in edu- cational settings without first obtaining permission. Students and faculty must familiarize themselves with the parameters of this exemption in order to ethically and lawfully navigate the information universe of text, graphics, audio, and video. Congress set out “fair use” provisions that require an as- sessment for each individual use of a copyrighted work. There are numerous guidelines to help faculty and students stay “safely” within these provisions;
some even specifically denote a suggested number of pages, stanzas, or sec- onds of a work that may be fairly used. A well-known example is the Fair Use Guidelines for Educational Multimedia by the Conference on Fair Use (CONFU).13These guidelines, including those of CONFU, are not legally binding, nor are they universally endorsed by professional associations and Social Context and Ethical and Legal Issues 123
higher education institutions; they are just guidelines and are seen by some as safe harbors.
Such guidelines are often incorporated into library publications or codi- fied as institutional policy. Judi Repman and Elizabeth Downs have outlined by policy type examples of items that may be used to develop policy provi- sions.14(See figure 7-1.)
124 Social Context and Ethical and Legal Issues
Student Technology Use, Including Acceptable Use of Computers
• requirements for instruction in technology use such as an “Internet Driver’s License”
• consequences of violating the Acceptable Use Policy
• use of multimedia hardware and software
• access to the Internet in the media center
• use of the Internet for research or recreational purposes
• appropriate use of technology during study hall, before and after school
• printing pages from the Internet for research or personal interest
• designing and posting websites on the school web server
• access to e-mail accounts, either through a school network or web e-mail services such as Hotmail
Faculty Technology Use, Including Acceptable Use of Computers
• requirements for instruction in technology and Internet use
• Internet access and use, including recreational surfing design and maintenance of class web pages
• use of e-mail accounts on school computers, either personal or through a school network Copyright and New Technology Issues
• conducting software audits
• fair use issues, including fair use of multimedia and Internet information
• use of Internet filters
• regulations about posting school-related informational web pages
• use of media with distance learning technologies
• use of non-school-owned software on school computers
• use of CDs and videos from home on school-owned hardware
FIGURE 7-1 Examples of Policy Types
It would be appropriate to add to this table those policies guiding the use of copyrighted works and those prohibiting the piracy of software and other copyrighted material, as well as policies guiding student and faculty owner- ship of their own scholarship.
Many institutions have a range of information policies in place, and these should be reviewed regularly. Reviews should assess community needs as well as any pertinent changes in laws or regulations. To be effective, policies must be both widely disseminated and well understood within the campus community. The librarians, administrators, and faculty who design and im- plement information policy should ask themselves the following questions:
Do students and faculty read fair use policies?
When and where are students introduced to these campus policies?
When are students introduced to copyright ownership policies?
When are students introduced to technological use policies?
Do faculty and administrative functions model and reinforce campus information policies?
Do faculty respect the intellectual property of students and others in their own research and publication?
Unfortunately, students are more likely to be informed, through student computer labs and campus e-mail services, of their institutions’ appropriate computing policies than of copyright and fair use. It is possible that well- informed students, who possess an understanding of themselves as the cre- ators and owners of intellectual property, may adopt more ethical practices as consumers of both scholarly and popular information.
Assessment Queries
The following three queries from the same instrument assess a student’s knowledge of policies and procedures in the use of and access to information (5.2.b–f):15
What disciplinary action might happen to community college stu- dents who violate the policies on plagiarism? (short answer required) To gain access to your college library’s online databases from off campusyou would (short answer required)
Social Context and Ethical and Legal Issues 125
You must create a radio advertisement for your job. You want to use a small part of a popular song from a CD for background music.
What is required of you, if anything, before broadcasting this adver- tisement?
a. Notify the songwriter that you will use part of his song.
b. Find out who distributed the song and negotiate with them for the right to play part of this song.
c. Nothing; you can use the song since you are only playing a small part of it.
d. You can use the song since you paid for the CD it is published on.
The Wartburg College (Iowa) Information Literacy Pre-Test for IS 201 mapped the next two questions to the outcomes in assessing students’ knowl- edge of online discussion practices (5.2.a) and specific campus policy provi- sions (5.2.c), respectively:
Why should one never type an e-mail in all caps?
a. It is “shouting” and a breach of netiquette.
b. It is hard on the keyboard.
c. It is hard on the eyes.
d. It is culturally offensive for some.
Each of these actions is a violation of the Wartburg Computing Policy as outlined in the Student Handbook (true or false):
Creating and posting my own page on the Wartburg server with authorization
Sharing my ID with my roommate
Accessing the Wartburg Information Network from off campus Downloading MP3 files
Assignments
The C©pyrightsite.org website, developed by Vivian Wright and colleagues in the College of Education at the University of Alabama, offers sample assignments that teach directly to a specific issue involving copyright. For ex- ample, “Using/Not Using Copyrighted Information” (a small-group assignment) 126 Social Context and Ethical and Legal Issues
requires students to build a multimedia presentation (web page or Power- Point presentation) to teach particular subject matter or address an assigned research problem that uses third-party copyrighted material.16 To address outcomes 5.2.d and 5.2.e, the students are to incorporate texts, images, and sounds as appropriate and actively seek permissions when necessary. The fac- ulty member must make sure that students approach this assignment with a working knowledge of the concepts of copyright and fair use and that they understand when it is necessary and how to seek permissions. It is likely that students will need to be given guides for reference. Unlike other general as- signments covering the issue of copyright, these assignments teach very spe- cific concepts, such as “contributory infringement and Internet service providers” and “deep linking”—areas of the U.S. copyright law that are cur- rently being formed.17
A similar assignment from Austen Peay State University (Tennessee) is titled “Web Site and Web Portfolio Project.” In this assignment students build a website, research and evaluate material for content, and apply their knowledge of fair use and copyright laws for a freely available public website.
Although this assignment was used for a graduate course, it can easily be adapted for undergraduates. It involves the application of multiple aspects of information literacy, including Standard 5 and its outcomes.18
An introduction to the previous assignment can be accomplished with an assignment developed by Sheryl Hinman in which students are required to investigate the use of a celebrity’s public image and intellectual property. In small teams, students check websites for copyright violations (5.1.d), assess the attribution of elements on the sites (5.3.b), work to determine if all the use of copyrighted material is within the parameters of fair use where appli- cable (5.1.d), and identify any original content in the sites and any other ma- terials that don’t need permission (5.2.f).19
The ACRL’s Information Literacy website includes an effective scenario to address outcome 5.2.b in “The Standards Step-by-Step: Standard Five”:
Students receive passwords and other forms of ID on a regular basis.
Have them identify how many they have and ask them to reflect on the reasons for restricted access.20
This can be supplemented with other queries such as: Are there challenges in conforming to set regulations? What are the benefits or challenges in having this access or privilege? Do you give up freedoms by participating in these systems of knowledge and information management?
Social Context and Ethical and Legal Issues 127
An additional scenario to address outcomes 5.2.c and 5.2.d would be:
A student captures a film clip used in an online course and uploads it to a peer-to-peer file-sharing network. Discuss the information is- sues involved. What policies or laws are involved?