Review:
This video is subtitled
``Copyright and Intellectual Property in the Academic Community.''
It opens with a definition of the term intellectual property.
It then transitions to the example of ``Sherry and Joe,''
students in a class taught by Dianne Martin at George Washington University.
Sherry and Joe are doing something at the computer,
Sherry has to leave the room to get a book,
and when she comes back Joe has put a disk in the computer and is making a
copy of her project.
This incident serves as a starting point for discussion of how unauthorized copying of software harms software developers, the industry as a whole, and eventually the customers. There are clips with various people, including software developers and company executives. There is a short segment on how unauthorized copying of book chapters and journal articles to create ``course packs'' may also be a copyright violation. There is also a short segment on plagiarism. At one point, a person asserts that ``copying software is the very same thing'' as plagiarism.
Actually, there is a fine point of distinction here that the video does not make. Typically the person who makes an unauthorized copy of software does it to use the software without paying for it, but does not represent the software to others as their own creation. The essence of plagiarism is to represent something as yours when it is not. Similarly, there is another statement later in the video that copying is wrong unless you get ``permission form the originator'' of the material. More correctly, it is the {\it copyright holder}\/ that one must get permission from. The two are not necessarily the same, as in the case of the author (originator) of a book and the publisher (more likely the copyright holder). But these points are relatively minor quibbles. The video is a reasonably good vehicle to use to get students started on the path of thinking about intellectual property.
This package is obviously created in keeping with the SPA's mission to protect the interests of software publishers. However, that does not negate the potential value of the package as a teaching tool.
Video Format/Length:
The video was viewed in VHS format, approximately 12 minutes long.
Ordering Information:
This video is produced by the Association of American
Publishers and the Software Publishers Association.
The copyright date is 1997, and the video seems up-to-date in tone and content.
The video comes with a pamphlet titled ``Questions and answers on copyright.''
Ordering information can be found at: