Paul+Geraci


 * Your boss/principal asks you to create a distance education/learning course in either a business or education setting. When you begin to outline your course, you realize there will be copyright issues you will encounter. What sort of issues might you face? How will you deal with them? Will any problems need you to request a copyright? If so, what?; if not, why?**

The answer to this question depends a lot on exactly what type of course you will be teaching. This would affect what types of copyrighted materials would be included in the course. A lot also depends on what type of institution you are creating the course for. Non-profit institutions have a much wider leeway than do for-profit educational institutions, as was discussed in this week's readings. Assuming that the course is for a for-profit institution, since most are, the first thing I would do is become familiar with fair use policy. This would help me to find out what kinds of works I would need to get permission to use. If the course is for a non-profit institution I would have to look at what kinds of works I need. According to Gasaway (1998), in a distance setting, non-profits may only use works that are of a "non-dramatic" type.

Next, I would list everything I want to use in my course that might need permissions. Finally, I would seek the necessary permissions for works that are not covered by fair use guidelines. I would also allow enough time to rework the course in the event that I did not get a response from a permission request or was denied permission to use a certain work. This would allow me to omit whatever I didn't have permission to use and replace it with another suitable work that I did have permission to use. This is one problem that I could see happening frequently if a copyright holder does not respond before my deadline to have the course finished. That is why it's important to always have a backup. The types of materials that might come up that would require permission from the copyright holder might be course readings not included in the textbook(s), videos, and possibily photographs as well.