In the practice of distance education, we often encounter such misunderstandings: many people believe that when producing printed textbooks and other multi-media teaching materials, they can use other people’s works or audio and video products free of charge, because this It is used for teaching. Article 22 of my country's Copyright Law stipulates that "copying a small amount of published works for school classroom teaching or scientific research for use by teaching or scientific researchers" is considered fair use. However, distance education does not belong to school classroom teaching, so the user cannot exercise the rights stipulated in this provision, but must obtain the permission of the rights holder in accordance with the law and pay remuneration before using other people's works. This is the difference between distance teaching and school classroom teaching. significant difference in legal status. At the same time, many rights holders lack awareness of intellectual property protection and do not have sufficient knowledge of the protection of their own interests, so infringements often occur.
In the information society, human life is more dependent on society as a whole than ever before. Obtaining information through the Internet has been reflected in all aspects of social activities. As teachers who pass on human civilization and cultivate talents for the future society, they must master the most cutting-edge and advanced research results in society, and improve their teaching and scientific research levels through exchanges and dialogues. Therefore, how to treat the intellectual property issues of Internet information resources has attracted more and more widespread attention in the education community. Although there are no clear provisions like the Universal Copyright Convention to solve the copyright protection issues required for online information dissemination in the Internet era, in December 1998, the "World Intellectual Property Organization" held in Geneva, the capital of Switzerland, on the establishment of a global At the first meeting of the Discussion Conference on Information Network Intellectual Property and Related Rights Management Systems, a series of proposals were put forward for the establishment of an electronic copyright management system. These proposals will not only help us understand more deeply the importance of Internet information management , urgency, and can enable us to adopt a more cautious and respectful attitude towards intellectual property rights when using Internet information.
Online courses are in the nature of teaching materials. Judging from the current provisions of my country's copyright law, the scope of fair use in the field of education and teaching usually only applies to classroom teaching in real space, and has not been extended to distance education. A 1999 U.S. Copyright Office report pointed out that the exemption clauses from real-space classrooms should be extended to virtual schools. The creation mode of distance education course development can be roughly divided into three types: transformation, new creation and update according to the different conditions of original resources. The transformation model is to select and absorb specific course materials that are suitable for use in existing course resources, and process and transform them; the new model is to create and design course materials from scratch, and the update model is based on the use of the school's own original course materials. Curriculum Development. All three models involve intellectual property issues. Distance learning courses offered by schools should be inspected and approved in advance by teachers, who should maintain academic control. At present, teachers mainly design courses and course materials themselves, so even if the course materials undergo many changes, teachers can still effectively control their quality. Schools may believe they own the intellectual property rights to a course and all related materials, causing the school to re-produce these courses year after year, have different instructors teach the same material, or make changes without the consent of the design instructor. If teachers lose control, they cannot ensure that the quality of the courses students learn is consistent with previous ones, nor can they reflect new changes in the subject. Teachers should occupy an important position in the transformation and new model of online course development to ensure the academic quality of online courses. At the same time, in order to reflect the latest advances in subject expertise and eliminate outdated teaching content, the teacher must still be in a leading position when maintaining and recreating the original curriculum. Only in this way can the quality of courses and changes in disciplines be guaranteed.
This article believes that teachers should be recognized as important in the development of online courses, especially in later innovations. However, the development of subjects and courses should be consistent and gradual, and curriculum innovation should be carried out by a group or a team, not just limited to a certain teacher. Because there is an iron camp and a fleet of soldiers, the team of distance education teachers is mobile. Just like traditional classrooms, classic textbooks can be revised as the times change and passed down from generation to generation. If only the original design and developer can control the transformation of the course, then it is not feasible.
Judging from the domestic situation, during the recruitment process of online teachers, most schools will sign an intellectual property protection contract with the hired online teachers. The contract is clear: the school owns the intellectual property rights of online courses, and online teachers have the right to sign. However, online courseware can only be used within the school and cannot be sold or transferred. Otherwise, teachers have the right to pursue liability or demand compensation. Online teachers are also not allowed to sell or transfer online software to third parties, otherwise they will be compensated for all losses. It can be seen from the online course organization model that online courses mainly involve the following copyright subjects: organizers of course development (online colleges), online course developers, original work authors, and course users (students). For online courses to be ultimately usable for educational purposes, they must be unified in style and produced as a whole by the organizers of course development. Therefore, we believe that the organizer of course development should have the right to adapt and use the online courses submitted by the course developers, and also have the copyright to the edited online courses; however, when exercising copyright, the copyright of the original online courses must not be infringed; In particular, the authorship rights of the original course developer.
The use and management of distance education teaching resources is a weak link. It is urgent to strengthen the use management and make it comply with the new legal rules. The licensing system for copyright owners and disseminators is required by law. Therefore, in the distance education teaching process, the copy rights, broadcast rights, rental rights, distribution rights, and information network dissemination rights must be agreed upon through contracts between various collaborators. , use teaching resources legally. Distance education institutions should further improve their internal management mechanisms and establish an intellectual property protection system when producing printed teaching materials, audio-visual teaching materials, computer-assisted teaching courseware, online courses, and transmitting teaching information through radio, television, and information networks. In the construction of written textbooks, the copyright holder status of distance education institutions should be clarified through contracts. When using other people's works, an intellectual property licensing system should be established. Works without permission must not be used in teaching to ensure that the intellectual property rights of authors and teachers are fully respected. In the construction of teaching materials, a contract management system should be established to clarify the rights and obligations of both parties in the contract and standardize behavior.
Raising and strengthening awareness of intellectual property protection is a top priority. As a distance education institution, its behavior is closely related to intellectual property rights. It must not only respect the intellectual property rights of others, but also pay attention to the protection of its own intellectual property rights and create its own brand. Distance education institutions should make full use of intellectual property laws such as trademark law and patent law to promote their own intellectual property rights, increase the value of their brands, and clarify their rights holder status through contractual agreements. Only by continuously strengthening the protection of intellectual property rights can my country's distance education achieve healthy development.
(Editor: Yang Yuping)