Alternatives to Copyright?

I attended the EduCause conference last week. My top take aways came from the keynotes. Jim Collins applied Good to Great and Built to Last to the education field. And then the second day, we heard from Lawrence Lessig who spoke about Copyright. I initially thought that would be a rather boring keynote—but it was actually interesting and thought provoking. He is one of the founding members of the Creative Commons, www.creativecommons.org . The strategy he shared is to not fight current copyright law, but to create alternatives. Dr Lessig argues that the world has changed since copyright law was first written and it doesn’t apply to the connected world we live in.

A comment that struck a note with me was that we are turning our young people into criminals. He shared with us that these kids know they are breaking the law with music downloads, etc., however, they do it anyway. Between students I have taught and my own teenagers, I know they are creating a connected world that many of us “digital immigrants” have no idea how to even access.

Creative Commons provides a way for artists and customers to legally share creative works. There is a tiered approach so artists can control the amount of copyright permissions given. Some stuff is totally free, other stuff has some restrictions.

The publishing industry may be next on the agenda. There is a new company on the horizon, Flat World Knowledge. www.flatworldknowledge.com . They are offering digital textbooks with a new copyright system for authors. It will be interesting to watch!