Abstract:

When we existed in an analog world, teaching and learning in a given discipline were naturally organized into relatively independent and discrete fields of study. The tools and techniques taught, were often specialized and unique, having developed over time and practice, in praxis and academe. The jarring and liberating explosion of digital technology in our world has upset our historic intellectual structures in the same way this technology is disrupting businesses, economies, and organizations of all kinds. Now digital literacy is the province and concern of educators and we find the boundaries that defined our areas of expertise are dissolving and changing. In many disciplines, appropriation was not a way of working, but something to be strictly limited. Now collaboration, appropriation, mixing, and re-mixing, the work of others into new expressions, statements, narratives, and representations of ideas are part of authorship and the work our students will do.

"Fair Use" in the U.S. and "fair dealing" in the Commonwealth, Europe, and various nations are similar but not identical, but generally provide for the educational use of proprietary content, as well as content in the public domain. Corporate interests have unduly influenced copyright laws, because of vested interests in keeping exclusive control of material that is arguably of public importance. Mixing and remixing are interesting, vital, emerging forms of artistic and intellectual creativity. These new ways of juxtaposing and using media represent new forms of literacy which should not be criminal activities, but do need to evolve ethics and aesthetics. This is a legitimate are for educators to focus on.

I will provide an overview of open source development, Creative Commons, Electronic Freedom Organization, The Pirate Bay, and other groups and individuals who represent alternative points of view on copyright and proprietary ownership of intellectual property. I will provide a of current restrictions on fair use that have evolved to protect copyright holders without balancing the rights of free expression in the culture and society critique from an educational perspective. Media of various forms can currently be thrust into public spaces and the public commons by private, corporate interests, without the permission of individual members of the public. Advertisements on the public airwaves, or on the sides of public buses, or on huge billboards above public parks or highways are examples of the nearly ubiquitous use of public domain by private corporate interests. Yet individuals who wish to comment on these intrusions into the public commons by using or reusing the images, sounds, or footage, to do so, are prohibited from doing so. In addition, recent extensions of the length of copyright serve the interests of the copyright holder, but do not serve the original purpose of copyright, which is to foster creativity and more new ideas.

The focus of the talk will be to provide a guide for educators in communication and communications arts to the challenges facing us in these areas, and to list teaching resources available around copyright, open standards, mixing and re-mixing. I will use Eric Raymond's frameworks of the Cathedral and the Bazaar to provide suggestions for how to organize our learning environments around open source principles.

Keywords:

copyright, fair use, open source, education, participatory culture, free culture.