Education, Research and Copyright

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

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
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
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
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
Achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4 14 April 2023
Great steps forward for teaching and research at the World Intellectual Property Organisation

The 43rd meeting of the World Intellectual Property Organisation’s (WIPO) Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) concluded with major wins for the rights of teachers and researchers to adapt and choose materials for quality education and research. Education International participated together with member organisations CONADU (Argentina), AUSPS (Fiji),...
Read more Great steps forward for teaching and research at the World Intellectual Property Organisation

more: Our work on education, research and copyright

Publications

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
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
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
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
1. Download
Education, Research and Copyright
Is it legal? Education and Copyright in the Digital Age
23 May 2022

This study intends to demonstrate whether copyright exceptions and limitations for educational purposes are fit for remote educational practices. Several studies commissioned by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) have analysed the copyright frameworks for education across the world8. The author has also previously analysed the fragmented landscape of provisions...

Is it legal? Education and Copyright in the Digital Age
1. Summary
2. Is it legal? Education and Copyright in the Digital Age