IPR issues

You are invited to take part in the mEducator project by giving free and conditional access to your educational material. In order to understand how your Intellectual Property Rights can be protected, please take the time to read the following information.

 

What is the purpose of mEducator?
mEducator aims to enable medical educational content to be discovered, retrieved, shared and re-used across European higher academic institutions by implementing and evaluating existing standards and reference models in the field of e-learning. To achieve this, it retrieves medical educational material of various types from academic institutions across Europe, provided that they are properly licensed regarding Intellectual Property Rights.
 
Why should I join mEducator?
You will have access to high quality medical educational material of various types, (from text to exam sheets, algorithms, teaching files, simulators, games, virtual patients, electronically traced anatomies), on a variety of topics. You will experience different pedagogical models, exploit active learning approaches, make the most of user-generated content. You will communicate and exchange expertise in skills and competencies. You will be part of an innovative process which will benefit academia, continuing medical education and the healthcare system itself. You have nothing to lose!
 
What is copyright?
Copyrights offer to creators exclusive rights of their creations; this stimulates human intellectual creativity. Copyright law protects only the form of expression of ideas, not the ideas themselves.
 
Who is the author?
The person who created a work is the author. Even in the academic community, the member states laws recognize royalty right to all academic members for their works produced during their academic activity.
 
What can the author do?
The author can give the right to some acts in relation to his work. These acts include:
a.        Reproduction of the work (making copies)
b.        Public performance of the work
c.        Broadcasting or other communication to the public of the work
d.        Translation of the work
e.        Adaptation of the work
 
Why do we need a license in mEducator?
The mEducator system facilitates users accessing a public performance (or use/ reproduction/adaptation) of a work posted online. When the author and/or right-holder of the work does not allow and/or license it for this performance through proper licensing, the mEducator performs a violation of Copyright. In addition, mEducator, as operator of a mechanism that facilitates the dissemination of knowledge must operate in a way that considers the interests of all, i.e. creators and authors. mEducator has to ensure that all professionals involved are legally and ethically compliant to the law.
 
What do I need to do as author?
As an author (and/or right-holder) of educational material you need to sign a Written Consent, by which you allow your institution to give mEducator access to your educational material. Though you may decide to participate and submit your properly licensed work, you are still free to withdraw at any time and without revealing the reason. Upon your notice, your academic institution will remove the material for which you disagree to be available under free and conditional access via the web.
 
How will my material be licensed after I sign the Written Consent?
Your material will be licensed using the Creative Commons licenses (http://creativecommons.org/choose/), which help authors publish their work online while letting others know exactly which of the rights they reserve, and which rights they leave to the benefit of other creators. You will define what people can or cannot do with your work. 
 
Creative Commons video: A Shared Culture