I recently fielded a question that seemed so basic, so fundamental, that I thought it deserved a blog post.
Many faculty today are cognizant of licensing restrictions. They diligently hunt for content published under Creative Commons, or in the public domain, to use in their courses. That's a good thing: they don't want to infringe anyone's copyright.
Sometimes, though, that perfect piece of content is out there on the open internet, tantalizingly available, but published under plain old-fashioned copyright with all the encumbrances and restrictions that implies.
You don't want to embed a copyrighted video (for example) in your online course materials. But is there a workaround? Can you, perhaps, just share the link, send your students over to YouTube, let them watch the video over there, instead of on your course website or in your LMS?
In a word:
YES
But don't take my word for it. Here's what the "boutique law firm" InfoLawGroup LLP has to say about it.
A recent federal court decision confirms that, without more, merely providing a link to copyrighted content is not direct infringement of the copyright in that content.
For more details, read the full article, "Does Linking to Content Infringe Copyright?"
The distinction, as I understand it, is that embedding a video is like republishing it. You wouldn't republish a copyrighted book without permission, right? But sharing a link is like sending your students to the library to check the book out on their own.
Happy linking!
Photo credit: "Link" by Aarthi Ramamurthy. Licensed under Creative Commons, of course!