Cornell University Professors Compard to Napster Users

October 3, 2006 in General by hypermodern | No comments

I think this is rather rediculous…

Peter Hirtle, the university copyright compliance officer, explains the problem as a lack of understanding about electronic media. “Faculty members are now where students were five years ago with Napster. Just because it’s easy to take something and put it on a website doesn’t mean it’s legal to do so.”

Regarding fair use, and repetitive use…What if the prof. teaches the same class every semester, does he/she have to re-ask every time to use a material? Why can’t they just keep the material out?

However, repeated use is considered to have adverse impact on market sales. “We don’t know if repeated use is allowed… that’s a question we have not addressed.” Hirtle said. He added later, “The only time you know for sure if something is fair use is when five members of the Supreme Court say it is.”

And what about Google digitizing every book on the planet…seems to mee like information that is accessable is for the best…look what happens when one leaves a computer out for slum-kids to use according to Sugata Mitra, PhD.