Distance education and Copyrights: Open access and PossibilitiesByShyamala IyerOMDE 690Fall 2006Final ProjectMaster of Distance EducationUniversity of Maryland University CollegeShyamala Iyer MDE 20061AcknowledgementsI thank my guide Prof Ulrich Bernath, whose timely guidance and suggestions enabled me tolook at various aspects of my project work critically and helped me refine them into this finalpiece.I am thankful to all my OMDE instructors for sharing their expertise, for scaffolding my learninginto mastery, and for instilling a zest for lifelong learning.I thank UMUC for providing me an opportunity to further my education.And last but not the least, I am deeply grateful to my family for bearing with me through the thickand thin of my pursuit and for not throwing the book at me even though I may well have deservedit!Shyamala Iyer MDE 20062Table of Contents Abstract 4Chapter 1: Introduction 5Chapter 2: Copyright law and Distance Education 9 The DMCA 10 The TEACH Act 11 Implications for Distance and open learning 12Chapter 3: Copyright law, a Boon or Barrier: An Analysis 15Chapter 4: Alternate Mechanisms to an “All rights reserved” regime 22 Creative Commons Licenses 26Chapter 5: Possibilities 28 Individual faculty/content creators 28 Administrators in Distance education 30 Global distance education practitioners 31 Distance Education as a field 32 Conclusion 33References 34Shyamala Iyer MDE 20063AbstractThis project includes a short historical brief on how and why the copyright law has evolved over theyears. It contains a brief explanation about the TEACH Act, and the DMCA act. It also reflects on therelevance of these acts to Distance Education (DE). An analysis is presented regarding the copyright lawsacting as a boon or a barrier in the context of education mediated through the Internet. In this section, thenegative impacts of the Copyright law are elaborated based on various writings by scholars, sociologists,lawyers and educationists who feel that the copyright law is becoming more restrictive and interferingwith a global goal of education for all. This is especially detrimental considering that we are at a stagewhen technology can actually enable widespread dissemination of knowledge and information sharing.Unfortunately, the copyright law is creating a situation of ‘scarcity in the presence of abundance’.In the section on alternative mechanisms, I explore the Creative Commons licenses as an alternative to theall rights reserved notion of copyright law in relation to distance and open education. A case is made foreducators to adopt the use-freely and share-alike model of the open source movement; and the need toprotect the public domain of the information commons just as environmentalism strives to protect thenatural world, the common heritage of the world. I also give an overview of some of the criticisms orlimitations of the creative commons licenses, as applicable to DE activities. In the concluding section Ipresent a discussion based on the ideas introduced in the above sections and its relevance to distanceeducation, at various levels namely, at the faculty level, at the level of DE administrators, at Institutionallevels and at the level of the field of Distance and open learning, in general. Shyamala Iyer MDE 20064Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (Who will guard the guards themselves?)Juvenal, Satires, Roman poet & satirist (55 AD - 127 AD)Chapter 1:Introduction:Distance education and technology have always been closely interlinked. Whenever, a newtechnological innovation has been presented to the society, educationists have adopted it to enableeducation and realize the truly human endeavor of education for all. In distance education, werecognize this as the generations of distance education. In the post industrial period, distanceeducation has received a major thrust by the enabling technologies of networked learning andcomputer mediated learning. As Downes (2006) has contrasted, the traditional centralized modelof learning is very different from the distributed model after the advent of the World Wide Web.The World Wide Web has empowered and given a new meaning to the term life-long learning.This has drummed away the notion that education needs to be only limited to class room learningor face to face learning. In today's networked world we are witnessing a phenomenaldemocratization of the learning process, where a student sitting anywhere in the world can learnfrom anyone, anywhere. Shyamala Iyer MDE 20065Digitalized learning can occur in formal and informal setups. One end of the distance educationspectrum is the regulated classroom kind of learning that occurs in institutionalized distanceeducation. The other end of the spectrum is an open ended one where learning occurs wheneverthere is an environment that enables such learning. Many have realized that the Internet offerssuch an environment. Even in the realms of formal, institutionalized distance education, the keyfocus is shifting from transmission of information to knowledge generation and problem solvingability. Instructors’ roles are changing from the sage on stage to a guide by the side. This isespecially compatible to the adult learner and the working professionals who constitute a majorchunk of the consumers of distance education. Given this paradigm shift, and the trend