Open Content and Ethics

The issue of open content and copyright on the internet is huge especially in the arena of education.  It is important for teacher's to make sure they are getting the proper rights to be able to utilize copywritten material because to not get those rights would be a violation of ethics.  Since teachers are role models to so many children, violating copywrite laws is simply unethical and should be avoided. 

However, getting copyrights or permission to use certain materials, books, software, can be a tedious chore and is sometimes not worth the effort.  For example, I'd love to show my soccer players some clips of the World Cup Highlights to demonstrate proper technique.  However, for me to get the written permission from FIFA to actually do that is almost not worth the effort and needs to be planned out in advance.  Plus if there is cost involved to acquire the permissions or the material, that usually makes it unaccessible.

This is where open content can be very valuable.  Open content embraces not only the sharing of information, but the sharing of instructional practice and experience as well. (Johnson, et al, 2011, pg. 22).  This allows people from any location to build upon each other's ideas and to learn from one another.  I believe people should get due credit for what they deserve but I also think that if people would be willing to share their knowledge and allow others to acquire it and further develop within the framework of open source/ content online, then the sky is the limit.  Open content provides a platform for all people to collectively help each other, and that is a good thing.

CC0 or "No Right Reserved", (as opposed to "All Rights Reserved")enables scientists, educators, artists and other creators and owners of copyright- or database-protected content to waive those interests in their works and thereby place them as completely as possible in the public domain, so that others may freely build upon, enhance and reuse the works for any purposes without restriction under copyright or database law.  (About CCO).  This allows people to simply say...this content is for the public domain.  Take this and do with it whatever you want.  I think of CCO as asimilar to planting seeds.  Someone puts an initial idea or concept out there and then allows anyone else to run with it with no strings attached.  The issue here is that there is a reluctancy for people to want to put out this type of information for the well being of the common because there is very little or no  money in it.

It is a complicated situation all the away around because developers spend a lot of time and effort to develop databases, content and material and they deserve recogniton and funding for this work effort.  However consumers are not going to pay to utilize that content when someone else provides similar technology and makes it available for free.  The Open Content market has made competition fierce in the world of software. Users can download Open Office for free and get almost all of the same benefits that Microsoft Office offers or pay Microsoft close to $400.00.  For what?  OpenOffice.org 3 can be downloaded and used entirely free of any licence fees. ("Why Open Office")

The bottom line is that Open Content is a fantastic concept overall that increases the ability for people to work together to create the unimaginable.  Overall, Open Content is great for keeping costs down to consumers and for sharing knowledge with anyone who wishes to acquire it.  However, there are still some issues with the nature of Open Content because the funding is so limited, developers of brilliant ideas are typically going to want to make big money by selling their product instead of releasing it to the open source market. 

Advertisers may be one solution for this dilemma.  Corporate sponsorships pay for ad space on websites and within apps.  This money can help pay the developers and the hosting costs associated while still being able to get the software into the hands of end users for free or very little cost.  Other solutions may be for developers to release free versions of their software but to charge for any add-ons that specific companies may desire.  Companies or independent consultants can also charge for training, installation, technical support or customization of the software.("Open Source Software")

References:

About CCO-No Rights Reserved. (n.d.) retrieved from http://creativecommons.org/about/cc0

Johnson, L., Adams, S., and Haywood, K., (2011). The NMC Horizon Report:

2011 K-12 Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.

Open Source Software. (n.d.) retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_software

Why Open Office?. (n.d.) retrieved from http://www.openoffice.org/why/