IPR & COPYRIGHT: CEVU/EUNITE MODELS AND CONSORTIUM AGREEMENT: REPORT

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IPR & COPYRIGHT: CEVU/EUNITE MODELS AND CONSORTIUM AGREEMENT: REPORT

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• Publié par: ejymyram
• Nombre de lectures: 84
• Langue: Français

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Grant Agreement number: 2001 - 3453 /001 - 001 EDU-ELEARN 1  

  IPR & COPYRIGHT: CEVU/EUNITE MODELS AND CONSORTIUM AGREEMENT: REPORT Ralph L Weedon, University of Strathclyde  

Introduction The author was part of an IPR Working Group set up within EUNITE, one of the participating cEVU initiatives. The Working Group consisted of representatives of EUNITE institutions and was lead by Stuart Brough, Head of IT Services at the University of Strathclyde. i I would like to acknowledge the work of those of my colleagues of the IPR Working Group on which this paper and conference presentation are based. ii   The aims of EUNITE are set out in its Memorandum of Understanding. iii It is to help meet these aims that the IPR Working Group was set up. Whilst individual academics can and do share ideas and course materials, the exchange and sharing of the latter and/or their joint development across jurisdictions or even within a nation state requires a legal basis. In the case of EUNITE more than course materials are shared, actual courses, including accreditation, are on offer to students of other member institutions. iv In particular the issues around Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) required dealing with. Of these it is Copyright that is the principle IPR that concerned the Working Group but many of the issues and agreements are relevant to other forms of IPR such as Database Right, Neighbouring Rights and, conceivably with respect to software, patents. Context and Preparation The EUNITE group were aware IPR impacted on their work and charged the Working Group with focusing on Access to dig ital resources and rules with respect to their use. It was also concerned that, despite EU harmonisation, differences in national legislation might hinder development of courses and materials. In practice it appears the latter is easier to deal with than the former.   The Virtual Campus task force   EUNITE was set up in October 2000 and its Memorandum of Understanding recognised the importance of IPR to its work. It set up a task force in August 2000 to look at the implications of sharing courses and materials and many of the IPR and related issues (amongst others) dealt with by the Working Group were identified. v   It was clear that IPR issues sit within the wider context of what EUNITE is, what it seeks to achieve and how it was organised. In particular on the continuum from education to business where does EUNITE lie? Would those who provided courses and materials be paid? Would these products or deliverables be commercially exploited? EUNITE, whilst it did not rule out the latter option, decided to focus on educational aims. This simplified the Working Groups remit. The key issues the task force noted were: ·   Whether a fee would be charged by the developing institution to other members of EUNITE Workpackage 1, Working Group 3: IPR&Copyrights report