Fisher and McGeveran: ``The digital learning challenge''

Fisher, William W., and William McGeveran. “The digital learning challenge: obstacles to educational uses of copyrighted materials in the digital age.” The Berkman Center for Internet & Society, August 10, 2006.

Summary: Copyright law and the institutional policies that implement and reinforce it are major obstacles to technological innovation in educational practice.

Drawing on research, interviews, two participatory workshops with experts in the field, and the lessons drawn from four detailed case studies, the white paper identifies four obstacles as particularly serious ones:

Unclear or inadequate copyright law relating to crucial provisions such as fair use and educational use;

Extensive adoption of “digital rights management” technology to lock up content;

Practical difficulties obtaining rights to use content when licenses are necessary;

Undue caution by gatekeepers such as publishers or educational administrators.

The authors recommend a number of minor changes in the law and propose various schemes for clarifying “fair use” rights and simplifying licensing mechanisms. However, I think that the most practical of their recommendations is the last:

Increase in distribution of content under more open licensing models such as Creative Commons, thus enlarging the amount of content available for unencumbered educational use.

Section 7.4 of the paper spells out the argument for this approach and describes some of the open licensing models that are already in use.