Legal, Illegal, and the Future

There was quite a lot of information in the readings and videos this week.  I didn't realize all the legalities that came with copyrighting and all the fine lines with creative commons, fair use, and open content.  And then electronic books get added to all of this.  These are so much more commonly used now and will just continue to increase in use.  The easiest way for me is start with telling what each of these topics are.  Open content is any kind of creative work including articles, pictures, audio, and video that is published in a format that explicitly allows the copying of the information.  Open content is also sometimes used to describe content that can be modified by anyone.  According to the 2010 Horizon Report on Open Content it has now come to the point that is rapidly driving changes in both the materials we use and the process of education.  At it's core the notion of open content is to take advantage of the Internet as a global dissemination platform for collective knowledge and wisdom, and to design learning experiences that maximize the use of it.  Creative commons is an organization devoted to expanding the range of creative work available for others to legally build upon and share.  The creative commons site enables copyright holders to grant some of their rights to the public while retaining others, through a variety of licensing and contract schemes, which may include dedication to the public domain or open content licensing terms.  The intention is to avoid problems which current copyright laws create for the sharing of information.  According to the YouTube video on Copyright and Fair Use and Wikipedia  Copyright is a set of exclusive rights granted to the author or creator of an original work, including the right to copy, distribute and adapt the work.  Copyright does not protect ideas, only their expression.  Uses covered under limitations and exceptions to copyright, such as fair use, do not require permission from the copyright owner.  All other used require permission.  Fair use is a doctrine in United States copyright law that allows limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the right holders.  It seems to me that open content is a way for information to be shared and copied with not having to worry about copyright laws.  The creative common goes hand in hand with open content because it is designed to allow people to legally share and build on previous work or information.  Copyright is designed to protect an author or creator of any original work.  The author or creator are the only ones that have the right to sell or copy their works.  If anyone wants to use any of these works they need permission from the original author or creator.  I think the main reason for this is because of money.  The original author or creator has all rights to their work and any profit that is made when used or when someone else uses it.  Then we come to electronic books or e-books as they are often called.  According to the 2010 Horizon Report on E-books the convenience of having an entire library of books, magazines, and newspaper - each remembering exactly where you left off the last time you looked at them - all in a single, small device is one of the most compelling aspects driving electronic reader sales.  3 reasons that campuses have been slower to adopt electronic books are availability, the ability to render high quality illustrations, and the publishing model and their formats.  With today's technology all of these reasons are becoming extinct. 
All of these concepts mean something different for education.  Open content and creative commons want anyone including students to be able to legally be able to copy or share information from any source that allows it.  This makes researching or sharing certain information in a classroom easier because of legal binds.  Copyright and fair use are set up so that no one can take the credit for or earn money for something that does not belong to them or that they didn't create.  This teaches students to make sure to give credit where credit is due and make sure they go through necessary loop holes if they want to use any information that is not theirs.  As far as e-books are concerned, I am sure classrooms in the future will have student books on some form of electronic device rather than textbooks.  As a teacher I do see future classrooms being more technologically advanced and all students having the necessary equipment for these ideas.  With as many books as I have I wish I would have been more knowledgeable about e-books because I would not need the huge storage space that I use for all my books.  I would have every title I love in one portable device, saving me space and money.