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Just a point of clarification.
In the recent discussion concerning the use of on-line materials for courses
there has been a distinction drawn between "copyrighted" and "uncopyrighted"
materials.
According to current copyright law, the only material that is not covered by
copyright is that which exists in the public domain (i.e. works for which
the copyright has expired or works deliberately indicated as "public domain"
documents). Under current law, a work is considered copyrighted at the
moment it is created. This copyright holds whether the document or web page
includes an explicit indication of copyright or not. Consequently, unless
the web document is explicitly marked as "public domain," it is and should
be considered copyrighted. Hope this helps in sorting out the legal issues
concerning the discussion of on-line course materials.
David J. Gunkel
Department of Communication
Northern Illinois University