This document provides an international perspective on open educational resources (OER). It discusses how the concept of intellectual property originated in the late 1960s rather than being based on natural law. Industries have existed for centuries without intellectual property protections, such as for car bodies, furniture, and clothing designs. The document also summarizes the history and purpose of copyright law through figures such as Queen Anne and President James Madison, noting it was intended to promote learning and progress rather than be considered a property right. Additionally, the Canadian Supreme Court has ruled that fair dealing provisions for copyright should be given a broad interpretation.

1. Why OER? An
international perspective
Rory McGreal
UNESCO/COL/ICDE Chair in OER
Edinburgh September 2016
Creative Commons
Attribution 3.0 License
(some images fair dealing)

2. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Some images fair dealing or fair use

3. Intellectual “policy”
NOT
Intellectual “property”
Term “intellectual property” first
popularised in a UN document in 1968!
“owners co-opt the rhetoric of property” – Bell

4. Quasi-copyright laws are a form
of industrial pollution
BOTH:
• enrich Big Business at the
expense of common people
• defended as “economic
necessities”

5. Industries without protection
monuments
car bodies
furniture
clothes designs
recipes
perfumes

6. Copyright:
The Good Guys
Scriptural Scribes
20 000 years
“The concept of
copyright was utterly
foreign to the ancient
mind.”
Tom Harpur

7. Copyright:
The Good Guys
St. Columba
(Columcille)
6th
Century
• Copied St. Finian’s psalm book
• Defeated King Diarmit who ruled
“to every cow its calf, to every book
its copy” (Brehon Law)
• 3000 killed in battle at Cuildremne
561

8. Copyright:
The Good Guys
Statute of Queen Anne
1710:
An Act for the
Encouragement of
Learning
Queen Anne

9. USA:
Copyright Act 1790:
An Act to Promote the
Progress of Science
and the Useful Arts
Copyright:
The Good Guys
George
Washington

10. Copyright:
The Good Guys
“incentive NOT property
or natural law is the
foundational justification
for American copyright -
It is a privileged
monopoly.”
President James Madison

11. Intellectual Property
Intellectual Property
Privileged Monopoly
12

12. • imposing duties
• restricting freedom
• inflicting burden on users
Waldron
Intellectual Property ?
OR
a manifestation of government
intervention in social relations May
13

13. Canadian Supreme Court
Pentalogy, July, 2012

14. Fair Dealing
MUST have a large & liberal
interpretation

15. Fair Dealing
Class copies are ok
✔