International Journal of Communications Law and Policy

Issue 6, Summer 2000

 

Intellectual Property and Digital Information in Higher Education: Problems and Solutions
April 17-May 1, 2001, Temple University, Philadelphia

 

INew media technologies have expanded the traditional classroom, providing new methods of delivering educational content. As a result, issues of intellectual property have gained prominence and caused much debate among educators, administrators, librarians, legalists, and others. Questions regarding who owns online course materials and what actually comprises an online course, along with a multitude of other concerns, are currently provoking thoughtful discussion in the academy and beyond. Educators, academics and policy makers, legal scholars and practitioners, and creators and publishers of educational software and content are invited to submit papers for the following theme sessions:

• Session I: Creating Intellectual Property with Technology
• Session II: Implications and Challenges for Educators and Users in Copyright and Intellectual Property Fair Use
• Session III: Legal Aspects of Copyright Law
• Session IV: Intellectual Property and Publishing on the Internet

We also invite papers for the general conference sessions on the following topics that may also be considered under the above rubrics:

• Impact of current and proposed legislation: How does the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, The Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act, and other legislation affect tertiary education with regard to issues of intellectual property and fair use?
• Issues of agency in the creation on online courses: Are there degrees of agency? If so how can they be determined? Are faculty members to be considered as free agents, managers, or employees? Is there a distinction between online course materials and the actual online course that creates the necessity for consideration of such distinctions?
• Fair use of digitized images and text: What constitutes fair use in a media environment that facilitates distribution of copyrighted material to thousands of users? Should the current definition of copyright be altered in consideration of these new systems of delivery, and if so, how?
• Policies on intellectual property in distance education: Some institutions of higher learning have their own policies on intellectual property and distance education. Should there be a national policy, and if so, how should it be legislated?
• Marketing and distribution: Who should market and distribute educational courses that have commercial appeal? What approaches will best serve the interests of institutions, educators, and students?

Conference Format

Temple University's OnLine Learning Program, the Teaching, Learning, and Technology Roundtable (TLTR), the Temple Association of University Professionals (TAUP), and Temple's Faculty Senate are sponsoring the conference. It will take place over a period of two weeks from April 17 through May 1, 2001.
There will be two days each week when synchronous presentations and chat sessions will be offered. The online platform will be available continuously throughout the two weeks for participants to access and comment on conference papers and presentations. Please visit the conference web site for more information www.temple.edu/virtualconference.

Keynote Speakers

David Thornburg writes and lectures on the impact of emerging technologies on education and learning. He is a Senior Fellow of the Congressional Institute for the Future where he helps shape telecommunications and education policy. He is also a monthly commentator for PBS and was recently commissioned to write a paper for the U.S. Department of Education on the future of technology in K-12 education. Dr. Thornburg authored the recent book Campfires in Cyberspace and is the founder and director of Global Operations for the Thornburg Center.

Ivan Hoffman is an Internet law, publishing, copyright, corporate training and online education, trademark and music attorney, practicing for 27 years. He practices in the Los Angeles area. His web site http://www.ivanhoffman.com has already won 6 awards. You may reach him on the Internet at ivan@ivanhoffman.com.

Joel Leach is active as a consultant and as an Expert Witness in the field of music copyright. Mr. Leach is the former president of a worldwide music publishing and recording company and the current president of STUDIO 4 PRODUCTIONS book publishing company. During his 32 years in the Hollywood/Los Angeles area he has worked as a jazz radio DJ, television music producer, music conductor, record producer and manufacturing consultant. Mr. Leach is a published composer and arranger and the author of three music textbooks as well as a book on earthquake preparedness and another on how to find bargain airfares. Mr. Leach, a past president of The International Association of Jazz Educators, is chairman of MUSIC INDUSTRY STUDIES at California State University, Northridge in Los Angeles, California. For more information about Mr. Leach visit his web site at www.joelleach.com.

David Post is currently an Associate Professor of Law at Temple University Law School, where he teaches intellectual property law and the law of cyberspace. He is also the Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Cyberspace Law Institute. His articles on the law of cyberspace have appeared in the Stanford Law Review, the Journal of Online Law, the University of Chicago Legal Forum, the Chicago-Kent Law Review, the Computer Law Reporter, and the Wayne Law Review. He writes a bi-monthly column, Plugging In, on law and Technology for the "American Lawyer", and he has appeared as a commentator on the law of the Internet on such programs as the Lehrer News Hour and PBS' "Life on the Internet" series. He is now working on a book, tentatively titled Declaring Independence: Notes from Jefferson's Cyberspace. More information about David Post is available on his web site: http://www.temple.edu/lawschool/dpost.html

Marshall Van Alstyne is an assistant professor at the University of Michigan, where he teaches information economics, electronic commerce, and computer simulation. Marshall received his BA in computer science from Yale, and MS and Ph.D. degrees in information technology from MIT. In industry, he wrote AI programs for Martin Marietta and for Lincoln Laboratory. He also worked as a technology management consultant at PA Consulting Group before co-founding a software firm to provide decision support software to state and private universities. He is also a visiting scholar at the Harvard Business School. His scholarship focuses on questions of information management such as: how to measure and value information; how information flows alter organizational output; what mechanisms promote information access and sharing; and what intellectual property regimes lead to the greatest information creation and growth? His research has been the subject of radio broadcasts in the US and Canada. Honors include an NSF Career Award, an Intel Fellowship, a Hugh Hampton Young graduate scholarship, and Best Theme Paper at the International Conference on Information Systems.

Registration

Registration will begin February 1, 2001 and end April 9, 2001. The following registration fees apply:

Corporate: $ 75
Academic: $ 45
Student: $ 20

Please click on the registration button on the conference web site to fill out the registration form. The form must be printed and then mailed or faxed to the address or phone number listed on the form.

Submission of Papers

Submissions will be subjected to a blind, peer-review process. All papers and theme proposals are to be submitted in plain text in either RTF or PDF format via the conference web site. Instructions on how to upload documents are given when you click on the "Submission" button. You will be asked for authorization to post your paper on the conference web site before you upload the file. Permission from the copyright owner for publication to the conference web site must accompany any copyrighted material that is used in your paper or presentation. Papers should be 6-10 pages and must be submitted in full including works cited. Each presenter will be given the opportunity to present their work in Microsoft Power Point with text, text with audio, or text with both audio and graphics during the conference and chat sessions.