Today all faculty members at the College received another reminder from the Campus Copyright Taskforce about the wickedness of distributing copyrighted materials on PioneerWeb:

Faculty members need to be aware that digitizing articles, book excerpts, sound and video recordings, images, and other copyrighted materials to post in the College's PioneerWeb course management system for student access is subject to federal copyright laws. Unless you are the copyright holder, have obtained the copyright holder's permission, or know that the work is in the public domain, such posting may violate applicable copyright laws. Posting of copyright-protected materials which does not meet the requirements of applicable copyright law is neither condoned nor supported by the College.

The College has set up an electronic reserve system managed by the College librarians, and the Library budget includes funds to cover copyright fees for items placed on e-reserve. Faculty members seeking to make copyrighted materials available electronically to students should employ this system and not post significant portions of copyrighted materials directly within PioneerWeb course sites. Newly developed tools allow students to navigate to Library electronic reserves directly from within PioneerWeb course sites. Curricular Technology Specialists can provide support in setting up these links.

Because Academic Support Assistants, CTSs, and student workers are not in a position to make judgments about copyright clearance, the College will not allow them to assist faculty members with scanning or otherwise digitally reproducing copyrighted materials for PioneerWeb or course website posting without an unambiguous written statement of permission from the copyright holder or clear information that the material is in the public domain. This may be a departure from past practice, but it is consistent with our policies for duplicating copyrighted print or audiovisual materials.

As you prepare for next semester, please plan ahead for using the College Libraries' electronic reserve system. The librarians are prepared to help you determine whether we already have electronic access to materials you propose to use or to gain copyright clearance for materials you wish to place on electronic reserve. The more lead time you provide, the better they will be able to ensure that the materials are available electronically when students need them.

Consult http://www.lib.grinnell.edu/general/mission-policies/coursereserves.html for information on the Libraries' electronic reserve system. For further information, please contact the Librarian of the College. Contact the Office of the Dean or Associate Dean if you have questions or concerns about the College's support for electronic posting of copyrighted materials.

Sigh -- another opportunity to guide faculty to the winning solution wasted. I replied to the Associate Dean who sent out the reminder:

Thanks for your reminder about the restrictions on copying and redistribution of copyrighted materials.

For the benefit of faculty members who are trying to work within those restrictions, you might mention (either in a follow-up message, or when you repeat your recent e-mail next semester or next year) that many authors now publish on-line course materials and research works under licenses that permit copying and redistribution for non-commercial purposes without charge, provided that the works are properly attributed to their authors. Here are some of the sites at which such works are collected:

• MIT OpenCourseWare
• Connexions Repository
• Berklee Shares
• Public Library of Science

You might also mention that faculty can easily release their own course materials and research works under such licenses. Details can be found at the Creative Commons Web site.