Copyright

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The school with which I am familiar - a secondary high school in New South Wales - earnestly complies with the copyright laws from what I have observed. On the whole, those working in the school use books, audiovisual and electronic resources in the spirit of the educational licences.

That being said I have witnessed some breathtaking examples of people who thoughtlessly or deliberately photocopy WHOLE books because they can. They have access to a photocopier and will keep pressing that green button. I have also witness former colleague's indignation at having the copyright laws being pointed out to them when they have asked support staff to photocopy WHOLE books. And these books could be obtained quite easily if the person so desired. Having the law pointed out to them, it wasn't a case of taking note and changing practice, but they ended up photocopying the whole book themselves, surreptitiously.

Generally, those working in the educational industry are more than aware of the laws and obey them. Where licence conditions are breached it is often inadvertent. The converting videos to DVD format is one where my current school has possibly thought that it would nice to have the videos in the collection converted to DVDs, but didn't look into whether using the technology (the good old DVD burner) is actually breaching the law.

Some investigation and being cognizant of the parameters within which educators are allowed to operate needs to happen in order to ensure that this practice is falling within the law.