Copyright? Copy Wrong!

Source: www.lib.odu.edu

This week’s topic, copyright, is near and dear to my heart. Not only did I study copyright law in Japan, I am also a photographer who zealously protects his copyright. Adding to my natural interest in the topic, the presentation during our class’s Blackboard Corroborate based meeting was excellent and very informative. The only thing missing from this week’s excellent educational opportunity was an actual application of the copyright law. Or so I thought. Fortunately for my education but potentially unfortunately for his educational future, one of my students decided to draw attention to his blatant copyright infringement by lying to me in class. His obvious lie caught my attention and I was forced to confront the reality of his copyright infringing behavior.

Honestly, his lie was just the final straw. Thinking back on the last few weeks I now realize that this student had consistently demonstrated a blatant disregard for the copyrights of both the author(s) of the textbook and the software we use. I now realize how naive I was. I should have put the facts together sooner. I should have realized just how extreme and blatant his copyright violations are. I guess that I just did not want to cause him any trouble. Now, having removed the naive blinders from my eyes, I realize that I have no choice. I have to put the wheels in motion which may put the student’s continued college enrollment in jeopardy.

I have decided to use the opportunity presented by the topic of this week’s reflective blog to think back on all the now seemingly obvious signs of the student’s malfeasance.

On the first day of instruction the student approached me and informed me that he was willing to install the course’s $1000 application on the computers of his classmates for only $50 a computer. He asked me to announce his offer to the class. I informed him that I would not and that making such an offer was inappropriate.

That night he used the Mail Tool from the course’s course management site to email the $50 offer to his classmates. Learning of the misconduct, I wrote to him and informed him that his behavior was in violation of the school’s code of conduct, computer usage agreement, and the copyright law.

Around the third week of instruction, the student used his phone during class to photograph pages from another student’s copy of the course textbook. After I got over the shock of his audacity, I told him to stop and informed him that such conduct violated the author's copyright and the student's code of conduct. 

The textbook we use in the course requires students to use a unique code found inside its back cover to register with the publisher. Only through registering do students gain access to the resource files. These files are required to do both the in class practice and the at home projects. Since the student had been doing the work in class and had submitted the required projects, I had just assumed that he had forgotten his textbook again.

The class I teach is not difficult. However, students do need to pay attention and they do need to keep up with my instruction. I often walk around the classroom looking over their shoulders to confirm that they are “getting it.” During one of these rounds I noticed that, unlike his classmates, the student, once again, was without his textbook. I asked him where his textbook was. I expected him to tell me that he had, once again, forgotten it. Instead, he lied to me. He told me that he had ordered it online and was waiting for it to arrive. 

How do I know he lied? First, his statement does not stand up to the light of reason. At the time, we were four weeks into the semester. There is no way it would take four weeks for a textbook to arrive, especially when I know that the publisher will express mail them to the bookstore overnight. Second, and most damningly, he had been using the resource files that one can only get AFTER they have purchased the textbook, registered with the code, and lawfully downloaded the resource files. That fact that he had been using the resource files to practice and complete his projects means that he already had the resource files. How could he have them if he was still waiting for his textbook to arrive? The only way he could have gained such access is through the illegal copying of them from a classmate.

For the record, the publisher is very protective of their copyright over these resource files. At the beginning of the semester one of my students was unable to access these necessary resource files due to an error in the code. I wrote to the publisher and asked if I could give the student a copy of the necessary files while they resolved the issue. The "absolutely not" response came incredibly quickly. I am afraid to think what they would do to this student if they learned of his blatant violation of their closely guarded copyright.

I guess that I am naive. I never expected a student to so clearly violate the copyright law. Nor had I ever expected anyone to do it so blatantly. As of this moment, the highly protective owner of the copyright does not know of this violation. I do not believe that I am under any obligation to inform them. However, I am not sure of this and I am worried that my silence might put my employer in jeopardy. 

The student also violated the student code of conduct and the University’s computer usage policy. I believe that I am under an obligation to let the University know of these violations. Once I have done so it will be another chapter in my education in copyright or copy wrong.