Ei-iE

Education, research and copyright

Spotlight

As educators, we advocate for a copyright framework that enables us to provide quality and innovative education and research. Education and research fit for the 21st century. Copyright needs to be reshaped in order to enhance research and quality public education which spans the lives of learners and takes place in a variety of formal and informal settings, online as well as offline.

We believe international copyright agreements and domestic law should be balanced between the rights of creators and the rights of users in order to support the development and dissemination of education, knowledge and research.

Access to quality education is a fundamental human right and a prerequisite for a thriving knowledge-based economy and for the advancement of science and innovation. We work to ensure copyright laws include exceptions that cover all relevant providers of education and research and permit the diversity of educational and research uses – both digital and analogue – of copyrighted content.

Our work on education, research and copyright

  1. Achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4 30 October 2023

    New research informs union work to overcome copyright obstacles for teachers and teaching

    On September 28, the International Day for Universal Access to Information, Education International hosted an online event entitled Pathways to pedagogy: Overcoming copyright obstacles for teacher resource access. The event launched three new pieces of research commissioned by Education International on copyright regimes and their impact on education and educators...

    Read more New research informs union work to overcome copyright obstacles for teachers and teaching
  2. Achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4 29 September 2023

    Copyright in education: bringing the classroom to life

    Dr Dara Dimitrov

    As the daughter of a refugee, education as a necessity was drummed into me. ‘You need to get a good education’ was my father’s lead mantra. My father was denied that right, and although he spoke seven languages, he could barely read one. My father saw education as a way...

    Read more Copyright in education: bringing the classroom to life
  3. Higher education and research 28 September 2023

    Copyright problems impede cross-border teaching

    Patricia Aufderheide, Juliya Ziskina, Kimberly Anastácio

    For teachers who work across national borders, copyright and licensing restrictions can create barriers that prevent them from doing their work. This affects the quality of instruction, and also impedes the growth of global learning strategies that otherwise have the potential to lower the North/South gap in educational access.

    Read more Copyright problems impede cross-border teaching
  4. Achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4 27 September 2023

    Copyright and teaching materials in Senegal

    Mar Mbodj

    Copyright gives authors exclusive control over their works. In education, however, the balance between access to information and respect for copyright is a major challenge. It is essential that we guarantee equitable access to protected knowledge while preserving the rights of artists and authors. Against this backdrop we have conducted...

    Read more Copyright and teaching materials in Senegal
  5. Higher education and research 25 April 2023

    Expanding rights to develop critical thinking

    Miriam Socolovsky

    Is it acceptable that we cannot use all the material we need to teach? What if we must submit every pedagogical decision involving something produced by a third person for legal clearance? When the alternative is to pay, what restrictions and exclusions does it imply?

    Read more Expanding rights to develop critical thinking
more: Our work on education, research and copyright

Publications

  1. Equity and inclusion

    Copyright limitations and exceptions for the use of digital materials in teaching and learning environments

    Policy brief
    7 November 2023

    The policy brief examines a broad range of empirical data and reveals the urgent need to intervene on current copyright laws to respond to teachers’ needs regarding access to and use of digital materials in the physical and online environments. It includes key recommendations that aim to enhance current international...

    Copyright limitations and exceptions for the use of digital materials in teaching and learning environments
    1. Download
  2. Achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4

    Higher Education in the International Digital Economy: Effects of Conflicting Copyright Regimes on Cross-Border Teaching

    Patricia Aufderheide, Juliya Ziskina, Kimberly Anastácio
    28 September 2023

    This study investigates how clashing copyright regimes affect the work of cross-border teaching in higher education. It explores constraints on pedagogy both from copyright policies at the national level and from conflicts between regimes internationally. As the recent pandemic demonstrated, and as previous research has shown, pedagogy requires flexibility that...

    Higher Education in the International Digital Economy: Effects of Conflicting Copyright Regimes on Cross-Border Teaching
    1. Download
  3. Achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4

    Access and Use of Teaching and Learning Materials from a Copyright Perspective in Kenya

    Catherine Nafuna Nandain, Charles Nandain
    28 September 2023

    This report presents the findings of a study conducted in Kenya, focusing on the access and use of teaching, and learning materials from a copyright perspective. The study aimed to identify the teaching materials used in class, strategies to access them, teacher’s knowledge of copyright laws, copyright-related challenges that teachers...

    Access and Use of Teaching and Learning Materials from a Copyright Perspective in Kenya
    1. Research findings
    2. Executive summary
  4. Achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4

    Access and Use of Teaching and Research Materials from A Copyright Perspective in Fiji and the Philippines

    Dr Dara Dimitrov, Dr Rogena Sterling, Dr Hilary Davis
    28 September 2023

    This study fills the gap created by the lack of research on educators’ perspectives on copyright protected resources in Fiji and the Philippines and identifies the challenges and strategies they undertake when confronted with material protected by copyright law.

    Access and Use of Teaching and Research Materials from A Copyright Perspective in Fiji and the Philippines
    1. Executive summary
    2. Research findings
  5. Achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4

    Education and copyright: Perspectives from the classroom

    Preliminary findings
    15 March 2023

    We know from WIPO’s and our own research that copyright legislation is inadequate for education today. It creates barriers to ensure the right to education as well as curtails teachers’ academic freedom to choose and adapt materials including for cross-border collaboration and exchange.

    Education and copyright: Perspectives from the classroom
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more: Publications

Our policy on education, research and copyright