UCLA Decides To Put Course Videos Back Online; Countdown To Lawsuit Begins...

from the 3...-2...-1.... dept

Last month, we wrote about how the Association for Information Media and Equipment (AIME) had threatened UCLA with copyright violations for allowing professors to post videos online for students to view. This resulted in UCLA pulling down those videos -- even though the university said it believed it had a very strong fair use case. Since pulling down the videos, the two sides have been talking. However, even without an agreement, UCLA has decided to put the videos back online for the next quarter. Given this, I'm guessing that it won't be long before AIME files a lawsuit, so we might get an interesting case over fair use in educational settings...

Filed Under: copyright, education, fair use, ucla, videos
Companies: aime, ucla

UCLA Professors Barred From Posting Video Online For Classes

from the can't-educate-unless-you-pay-up dept

Copycense points us to a story out of UCLA about how professors who, in the past, would post video segments online for their classes to watch, have been forced to stop due to claims of copyright infringement by the Association for Information Media and Equipment. You see, the whole educational fair use exception to copyright law apparently doesn't apply because the AIME says it doesn't (even though UCLA was pretty sure that fair use did apply), and it's causing problems for both students and teachers. UCLA still claims that its online video service was legal... but professors have been told to stop using it. Instead, they're sending students to UCLA's media lab to watch videos... but the lab has greatly reduced hours (including being closed all weekend) due to budget cuts. Isn't it great to see how copyright is "promoting the progress" by making it that much more difficult to educate our young leaders of tomorrow?

Of course, just as I finished writing up the above paragraph, I came across a different story about how UCLA has created a portal of TV video content for students, basically aggregating authorized TV content from Hulu and YouTube so that students can access it all in a single interface. So, the university makes it easier to watch entertainment video... but educational videos? Too bad.

Filed Under: copyright, education, ucla, video
Companies: aime, ucla