Learning in a digital age/LiDA103/Copyright/Introduction

Copyright is a branch or subsection of intellectual property law which aims to protect the outputs of intellect through, for example, trademarks, patents, designs, software licenses and copyright. In this learning pathway we restrict our study to providing an introduction to to copyright law.

In his book ''[http://www.free-culture.cc/freeculture.pdf Free Culture. How big media uses technology and the law to lock down culture and control creativity]'', Lawrence Lessig argues that the default "© copyright all rights reserved" (applicable in most countries) contradicts the original purpose of copyright: to promote progress in science and the useful arts - a public good. The purpose is not to enrich publishers or authors, or to grant them undue influence on development and distribution of culture.

Disclaimer: These course materials are designed to provide an introduction to copyright for learners. This learning pathway forms part of a course on open education, copyright and open licensing and should not be considered as a replacement for detailed study of copyright law. However, copyright is prerequisite knowledge to understand and implement open content licensing. These course materials are not intended to provide legal advice. Copyright is a complex area of law and there are differences between the copyright legislation of individual countries around the world which cannot be addressed in a generic introductory unit. Please consult a qualified legal professional for advice on copyright at your institution.