JISC Legal : April 2010

Welcome to the JISC Legal newsletter covering what's been happening in March 2010.

Our Newsletter Hits 1000!  On Thursday, 7 March 2010, we had our 1000th subscriber to our newsletter.  Bringing up the 1000 was a member of staff from the Institute of Education.  We're proud that many subscribers find content of interest to forward on to colleagues.

JISC Legal will be participating in the JISC Advance activities at the forthcoming JISC Conference 2010in London on 12-13 April.  As well as being around for the entire event to hear your concerns, answer your queries and listen to your feedback, we'll be holding three 15 minute 'surgeries' on areas of topical concern.

In addition to the conference, JISC Legal will be appearing at various events throughout the month of April including the Business and Community Engagement - Collaborative Tools Project, Birmingham, the RSC East Midlands Copyright and Web 2.0 Seminar and the RSC West Midlands e-Safety Seminar.  More details on all of our events are available on the website at: www.jisclegal.ac.uk. 

JISC Legal has provided a series of five short guidance videos on Business and Community Engagement (BCE).  Each video explores different aspects of BCE including: Data Sharing and Research, Creating Intellectual Property Together, Using Intellectual Property Together, Keeping Confidential  and e-Marketing.  They are available from the BCE Theme page of our website under the 'Resources' tab at: http://www.jisclegal.ac.uk/Themes/BusinessandCommunityEngagement.aspx. 

To complement our web presence JISC Legal is now active on Twitter, Vimeo, YouTube and Delicious.  We look forward to connecting with you there. 

We would like to thank everyone who participated in March’s e-Safety webcast, as well as those who provided feedback on it.  Sam Courtney of Dorset Adult Learning was randomly selected from those who submitted feedback to win a Nintendo DSi.This webcast is now available to view ordownload. The webcast is broken down into ten separate segments, allowing you to watch at your convenience.

Further details are available from the website at: http://www.jisclegal.ac.uk/Webcasts.aspx. 

We would like to take this opportunity to remind all of our users that there are a number of FAQs freely available on our website, each one relating to our core subject areas. However, if you cannot find the answer to what you are looking for then please remember our enquiry - more details on the website at: info@jisclegal.ac.uk.     

Further, please remember that your feedback is always welcome at: info@jisclegal.ac.uk. 

Details of what's on offer from JISC Advance can be found on the newly-launched website at: http://www.jiscadvance.ac.uk/.

As with previous newsletters, this newsletter has three sections:

1.     Legal News Digest for FE and HE

2.     New JISC Legal Publications

3.     Upcoming JISC Legal Events

For up to the minute news, our full range of publications, our events diary and our three-day turnaround legal enquiry service, visit our website at www.jisclegal.ac.uk.

A recent High Court ruling found an indexing company which sorts postings to Usenet groups liable for the copyright infringing actions of its users.  The judgment details how Internet Service Providers (ISPs) can be held liable for their involvement in facilitating copyright infringement.  This case is of particular importance to the FE and HE sector as it offers clarification on the role of ISPs in relation to shared liability in respect of breach of copyright by those using their services.  For the full details of the case please refer tothejudgmentat:http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Ch/2010/608.html. (30/03/10)

The CLA Higher Education Copyright Licence Operation Working Group has issued a Good Practice Guide for higher education in the creation of course packs.  The guidance includes illustrations of good and questionable practice.  There is an explanation of the aims of the licence and information on what to do when in doubt.  The full pdf document can be accessed at: http://www.cla.co.uk/data/pdfs/he/he_good_practice_guide.pdf.

JISC has commissioned a study into the effectiveness of its e-Learning programme.  They would like to speak to wide range of people, including practitioners, e-learning/ILT managers, staff and educational developers, learning resources staff and institutional managers working in HE and FE. A short online survey has been launched to allow individuals to register their interest in participating, as well as collecting general information about awareness of JISC e-Learning resources. If you would like to take part in the online survey, or register your interest in participating in the telephone interviews, visit http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GLLXNJH. If you would like more information about the evaluation study, visit http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/elearning/elearningcommsevaluation.aspx.

In the recent case of H & L v A and B City Council, the High Court considered whether or not it was lawful for a local authority to disclose information on a particular individual who had been convicted of an indecent assault on a child.  The disclosures were made to a number of bodies with which the individual had been dealing.  The court recognised that there was a strong need to protect the interests of children and held that not all of the disclosures made by the council were unlawful.  Indeed the lawful disclosures were reasonable and did not go beyond what was required for making measured communication.  The question here for FE and HE is whether or not they can lawfully share information about individuals where it is recognised that  they could pose a risk to children and or vulnerable adults. Failure to disclose could mean that institutions are in breach of their safeguarding duties whilst unmeasured disclosure could mean that the institution breaches an individual's right to privacy under Article 8 of the Human Rights Act 1998.  Each decision should be made on a case by case basis.  Full text of the judgment is available at: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/2010/466.html. 

JISC has launched a toolkit to allow information officers, IT directors, security managers and their staff to better understand the legal issues involved in managing identity issues. Identity management is key to many processes and services that universities and colleges provide for students, staff and other individuals and the sector as a whole can benefit from improved identity management practice.  The toolkit can be accessed here - http://www.jisc.ac.uk/news/stories/2010/03/identity.aspx.

Under new Government proposals the amount of fees that solicitors can charge for successful libel cases on a no-win, no-fee basis will dramatically be reduced from April this year.  The move is designed to deal with the soaring costs of defamation actions.  From April the maximum success fee rate will be capped at 10% thus redressing the balance between the freedoms of journalists and publishers against lawyer fees.  This news story highlights forthcoming changes to the law of defamation for institutions as part of a Government drive to bring it in line with modern society.  More details on this news from the Outlaw website at: http://www.out-law.com/page-10809.  Alternatively, you may wish to refer to our Law Watch feature for more details on the wider reform available at: http://www.jisclegal.ac.uk/ManageContent/ViewDetail/tabid/243/ID/1133/Defamation-on-the-Internet--Consultation-16092009.aspx.  (09/03/10)

The Article 29 Data Protection Working Party has issued its opinion on the concepts of the terms 'controller' and 'processor' for the purposes of the EU's Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC.  The Opinion is a welcomed move by the data protection industry as the intention is to further clarify and provide guidance on the interpretation of the concepts of 'data controller' and 'data processor.'  This news aims to highlight the views of the Working Party to Data Protection Officers and Compliance staff and others at institutions who may benefit from the guide.  For access to the full opinion please refer to the European Union website at: http://ec.europa.eu/justice_home/fsj/privacy/docs/wpdocs/2010/wp169_en.pdf. 

Every single YouTube video with English language audio can now support captioning created by speech recognition software thus improving the sites accessibility for videos.  The move has been highly favoured by those representing deaf and hearing impaired users including the Royal Institute for Deaf People who agreed that the change would be most useful.  More details on this news story which is of particular interest to Disability Suppost staff as well as others at institutions is available from the Out-Law website at: http://www.out-law.com/page-10815.  (08/03/10)

A surprise amendment forced through for controversial clause 17 of the Digital Economy Bill could lead to entire sites being forced offline if it becomes law. This Bill, designed to combat digital copyright infringement, is planned to be  hastily pushed through the legislative process before the upcoming election in April. This would see Internet Service Providers being forced to block websites with substantial proportions of copyright infringing content and even provide information to rights holders about persistent offenders. The new amendment removes the highly debated proposed powers for Ministers to make alterations to UK Copyright law and instead intends to give High Court Judges the power to grant injunctions against suspected copyright infringing websites. This could potentially mean entire sites, like YouTube, being forced offline reports the Guardian. This could lead to further legal challenges for institutions providing internet services and using user generated content sites. For the full article, see http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/mar/05/digital-economy-bill-pushed-through(05/03/10)

Under proposals outlined in the Digital Economy Bill, universities, libraries and small businesses offering wi-fi services will not be exempt from ensuring that their networks are not used to infringe copyright.  This is not good news for these groups as such plans will make them responsible for what is carried out over free wi-fi and therefore open to the same sanctions for copyright infringement as individual subscribers.  This news story aims to highlight the legal challenges facing institutions and others under key proposals put forward in the new Bill.  More details on this news story is available from the BBC website at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8543142.stm. (01/03/10)

The Welsh Repository Network has published a learning tool to help you consider some of the copyright issues for multimedia respositories. The tool gives an introduction to some of the complications to take into account when depositing multimedia copyright works and has some short interactive exercises for you to consider. Visit http://www.wrn.aber.ac.uk/objects/multimedia/page_01.htm to get started.

(01/03/10)

e-Safety Policy ChecklistA checklist of questions for institutions to consider when updating or framing an e-safety policy.

Five Top Copyright Tips in 30 Minutes - JISC Legal on RSCtv

JISC Legal's Jason Miles-Campbell presented "Five Top Copyright Law Tips for Colleges and Universities" as part of RSC Scotland South & West's RSCtv programme on Tuesday, 9 March 2010.  The half-hour online presentation gave participants some quick and practical ideas for making best use of other people's stuff online, whilst being confident in copyright compliance. A recording of the presentation is available at https://sas.elluminate.com/mr.jnlp?suid=M.479AE810C53930731552F3E516D987.

Business and Community Engagement Videos

JISC Legal has provided a series of five short guidance videos on Business and Community Engagement (BCE).  Each video explores different aspects of BCE including: Data Sharing and Research, Creating Intellectual Property Together, Using Intellectual Property Together, Keeping Confidential  and e-Marketing.  They are available from the BCE Theme page of our website under the 'Resources' tab at: http://www.jisclegal.ac.uk/Themes/BusinessandCommunityEngagement.aspx. 

JISC Legal at the JISC Conference, 12-13 April 2010

JISC Legal will be participating in the JISC Advance activities at the forthcoming JISC Conference 2010in London on 12-13 April.  As well as being around for the entire event to hear your concerns, answer your queries and listen to your feedback, we'll be holding three 15 minute 'surgeries' on areas of topical concern.

JISC Legal at RSC East Midlands Copyright Seminar, 27 April 2010JISC Legal will clarify how copyright law applies in the education context. The session will outline how learning objects and learning materials can be lawfully used and re-used and will include guidance on using licences to ensure the quality and sustainability of learning resources.  For more information, please see: http://info.rsc-em.ac.uk/events/event_details.asp?eid=124.

JISC Legal at RSC West Midlands e-Safety Policies Workshop, 28 April 2010JISC Legal will present a hands-on workshop where delegates can collaborate on the production of acceptable use, e-safety, data protection and security policies. For more information, please see: http://info.rsc-wm.ac.uk/events/event_details.asp?eid=525.

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