Top Intellectual Property Developments of 2007 for Scholars of Composition, Rhetoric, and Communication

Introduction

Clancy Ratliff, University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Co-Chair, 2008 CCCC Intellectual Property Caucus

The year 2007 carried quite a few key developments for those who follow issues and debates related to copyright and intellectual property. For the third year running, then, the CCCC Intellectual Property Committee is pleased to publish this annual report in the service of our first goal, to “keep the CCCC and NCTE memberships informed about intellectual property developments, through reports in the CCCC newsletter and in other NCTE and CCCC forums.”

In assuming the editorship of this year's collection, I have chosen to implement two changes which I believe embody the values of the Caucus and the IP Committee. First, I have licensed the collection under a Creative Commons license. This license allows readers to use the collection beyond the boundaries of fair use, provided the collection is not used for commercial purposes, the authors of the articles are credited, and no derivative works are made. One exception to the condition regarding derivative works concerns modifications for purposes of accessibility. Readers can, for example, create an audio recording of the collection or increase and change the font for the visually impaired. The main purpose for the Creative Commons license is to enable cross-publishing of the collection in a variety of online publication venues. I also hope that readers find the collection useful for the classroom. This collection may be reprinted in course packs or archived on course web sites under the terms of the Creative Commons license.

The second change I have made is to make the collection available in Open Document Format. In the past, the collection has been published in html and pdf format, as it is this year, but I am also publishing it as an .odt file, which can be opened in at least two open source word processing programs: OpenOffice and NeoOffice. I am uploading the file in .odt format as a public acknowledgment of the IP Caucus's growing awareness of software as intellectual work and open source software as intellectual work that is free and open for all to use and build upon.

• Click here for a downloadable PDF of these pieces.
• Click here for a downloadable Word Document of these pieces.

McLean Students File Suit Against Turnitin.com: Useful Tool or Instrument of Tyranny?

Traci A. Zimmerman (Pipkins), James Madison University

The Importance of Understanding and Utilizing Fair Use in Educational Contexts: A Study on Media Literacy and Copyright Confusion

Martine Courant Rife, Lansing Community College and Michigan State University

The National Institutes of Health Open Access Mandate: Public Access for Public Funding

Clancy Ratliff, University of Louisiana at Lafayette

"Recut, Reframe, Recycle: Quoting Copyrighted Material in User-Generated Video"

Laurie Cubbison, Radford University

One Laptop Per Child Program Threatens Dominance of Intel and Microsoft

Kim Dian Gainer, Radford University

Bosch v Ball-Kell:  Faculty May Have Lost Control Over Their Teaching Materials

Jeff Galin, Florida Atlantic University