Copyright must be considered as part of your risk management strategy

We are living in an infomation age and content is available to us like never before. If you search the web with a key word you are bound to come up with thousands of site containing information about our chosen topic. Technology makes it easy for us to copy this information, download photos, videos, graphics and so on.

Some of this content will be useful in classroom and online activities. So how do we know if we are abiding by copyright laws in Australia or breaching them?

As you develop your e-learning strategy consider copyright infringement as a possible risk. Consider the strategies you will employ to minimise or completely remove this risk.

For example, a good strategy to minimise the risk is to ensure your team is educated and fully informed on copyright infringement.

The Australian Flexible Learning Framework has some useful resources that might assist you to educate and inform your team. Visit the Copyright Kitchen for more information.

This website will answer some very important questions, including:

* who owns the copyright for the work you create as a result of your employment
* copyright guidelines for editing another teacher's work
* using music in PowerPoint
* using video recordings from youtube

I have found some other useful URLs that you might find useful when you are considering copyright as part of your e-learning strategy.

http://www.smartcopying.edu.au/scw/go/pid/856

http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/ip/copyright.shtml

http://eprints.qut.edu.au/7505/