All of us have experienced that feeling that we’re doomed when we first start learning about copyright. And if you asked us about it in March 2020, you’d get a response as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror. Sometimes it seems like the support of our colleagues is our only hope. And across the years, a range of colleagues have shared their stories of becoming more powerful than you can possibly imagine in the realm of copyright. Megan Kilvington, Liesl Rowe and Eugen Stoica will be sharing their stories in our next webinar. Join us at 11:00 on April 19th 2024 for Becoming a Co ..read more

Last March, Chris chaired a discussion at the Bodleian Libraries as part of the University of Oxford Forum of Open Scholarship (OxFOS). The event allowed leading experts in the fields of copyright scholarship, librarianship and publishing to debate the role copyright law reform might play in advancing open access publishing. The recording of the debate is still available to view and well worth a watch. One of the panel members in that debate was Professor John Willinsky (Simon Fraser University, Stanford University, Public Knowledge Project) who presented on Achieving Sustainable Universal Op ..read more

On Friday 8th March we have the 68th webinar where we are joined by guests Natalie Lafferty (University of Dundee) and Sharon Flynn (Technological Higher Education Association) who will be speaking about ALT’s Framework for ethical Learning Technology (FELT). There is clearly some overlap between ethics and copyright, so we will explore this, but the webinar will be a chance to find out more about the development of the framework and it’s important role as part of ALT’s strategic aim to strengthen recognition and representation for Learning Technology professionals from all sectors ..read more

Something to look forward to this February is an invitation to the upcoming fourth iteration of “Research Support Games Day”, which will be on Monday 12th February 2024, 14:00-16:00 GMT via Zoom, hosted by the University of Glasgow. To check the time in your local time zone, please follow this link – http://tinyurl.com/rsgd4-time-zones. This event is an opportunity to learn and discuss games-based tools and methods that are relevant to supporting researchers. For example, games that help to train researchers about Open Access, copyright, research data management, or documenting impact. T ..read more

Co-Chair’s Welcome and Update Welcome to the third annual report of the Copyright and Online Learning (CoOL) SIG of the Association of Learning Technology. The CoOL SIG was formed in November 2020 and this report covers the period January to December 2023. We are honoured to continue to act as the Co-Chairs for this group and the report outlines the fantastic achievements of the copyright and online learning community over the last 12 months. While the CoOL SIG’s activities have centred on our Copyright and Online Learning webinars we have also worked on various projects and initiatives outli ..read more

Douglas McCarthy – selfie CC BY 4.0 Today’s blog post comes from friend of copyright literacy and previous Icepops Keynote Douglas McCarthy. Douglas is Head of Library Learning Centre at Delft University of Technology as well as a researcher, author and advocate on the topic of open GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives and museums). Here he gives his reflections on the recent UK court case THJ v Sheridan which has been a subject of considerable debate within the UK cultural heritage sector. In late November at the UK Court of Appeal, in the case THJ v Sheridan, 2023, Lord Justice Arnold made a ..read more

The Christmas Copyright Elves On Friday 8th December, the creme de la creme of copyright enthusiasts gathered to pit their wits against quizmaster extraordinaire Matt Voigts. 24 mind-boggling questions tested the limits of their knowledge and patience before one victor emerged. And all she got for her efforts was to be serenaded by a couple of suspicious-looking Christmas elves. Your quizmaster If you missed the Big Fat Copyright News Quiz of the Year, fear not! You can still play along (or play again) by revisiting the original broadcast recording – or testing yourself, your friends, and anno ..read more

Earlier in 2023, we ran a survey to find out how you feel about our Copyright Literacy webinars. We asked you to comment on their impact, topics, relevance and format, in the hope that we’d be able to find out how we’re doing, what we’re doing well, and what we might be able to work on going forward.  Combining this with a mid-2020 survey, we’ve been able to compare and measure how these things have changed throughout the different stages of the COVID-19 pandemic and our ever-changing ways of working and living. Whether or not you took part in either survey, we are delighted that the resu ..read more

On Friday November 10th 2023, in our next webinar, we will be hearing all about the Open Education Network. The Open Education Network is a community of people working at higher education institutions, consortia and systems who support open educational practices. Launched in 2014, the OEN has grown to include people working at more than 1,600 member campuses in the US. Together through community, professional development and infrastructure, they are making education more affordable and equitable for students. In Webinar 65, we are pleased to be joined by speakers who will be talking about how ..read more

By Rachel Scanlon Chris writes: We are really pleased to have a guest post from the fantastic Rachel Scanlon from the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford who has agreed to share her new Creative Commons Attribution Card Game on our blog. It’s an excellent resource which I know from first hand experience works really well at explaining a topic people are often confused about. Read on for the full story: Background I have been teaching variations on Creative Commons Licences session for a few years. The session was originally on finding images online which included Creative Commons (CC) im ..read more