Stealing the Goose: Copyright & Learning by Rory McGreal

In a post to TeachandLearnOnline, Bronwyn Hegarty makes mention of Rory McGreal's useful article on Copyright and Learning. I'm posting it here for easy reference, and because I think it makes sense:

Abstract
The Internet is the world's largest knowledge common and the information
source of first resort. Much of this information is open and freely
available. However, there are organizations and companies today that are
trying to close off the Internet commons and make it proprietary. These are
the "copyright controllers." The preservation of the commons and expanding
access to digital content and applications are very important for distance
educators. The educational exemptions for "fair use" in the United States and "fair dealing" in the Commonwealth countries are integral to any understanding of copyright, which was instituted for the dissemination of knowledge, and not, as is commonly believed, to protect the rights of the copyright owners. Copyright law was expressly introduced to limit their rights. Yet, these controllers are successfully turning a "copy" right into a property right. The traditional rights of learning institutions are being taken away. The balance for researchers should be restored. Research and learning must be allowed the broad interpretation that was intended in theoriginal laws.

Rory McGreal, Stealing the Goose: Copyright and learning
International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning
Volume 5, Number 3. ISSN: 1492-3831
November – 2004
At http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/205/819

Rory is Associate VP, Research at Athabasca University - I met him in the mid-1990's when he was at Tele-Education NB - as part of a set of interviews the Canadian Advanced Technology Association (CATA Alliance), to get a feel for the economic transformation that was happening in New Brunswick. I was able to parlay that assignment into a set of consulting engagements focusing on economic development / strategic planning projects - to help a community college in Miramichi, NB develop a plan for launching a technology-assisted learning institute.