Schools Must Educate Children on the Importance of Copyright and Ipr

Teach student in schools, will be my clear message on the World Book and Copyright Day.

Begin the teaching of IPR

There are no blanket permissions to copy and reuse content from print and digital publications. There is a process and that process will provide licence to use. This is where we need to begin the teaching of IPR. Almost all industries and products are covered one way or the other by Copyright and/or Intellectual property. There are Industrial Designs, Patents and many more across industries including Music and Cinema. My focus is on the resources used by schools in India and how they need to address the IPR matter.

Centralized licensing hubs

There are centralized licensing hubs for text-based copyrighted materials, enabling the issuance of licenses on behalf of rightsholders. The hubs that issue these licenses have long-standing and close relationships with publishers, authors, and other rights holding groups. These representative bodies act as agents between the content provider and the schools.

What are the recommendations to achieve this?

• Schools should put a system in place which will reflect the policy they are adopting to respect the rights of copyright rightsholders.
• Should encourage student involvement in maintaining a Registry of such actions in obtaining the licensing facility.
• Can conduct Summer Schools on Intellectual Property to provide students acquire deeper knowledge of IP.
• Publishers should collaborate with schools in this important activity.

What approaches could be taken to improve the situation?

Advocacy and awareness should be created for a better understanding of doing the rightful and in a legal manner.

Obtain licenses for any form of photocopying or copying from digital and print books, magazines, journals and websites. This includes using images and software.

The mission statement of WIPO The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) promotes innovation and creativity for the economic, social and cultural development of all countries, through a balanced and effective international intellectual property system.

Publishers should utilize their copyright page in their published books for better use

At present publishers are communicating details regarding copyright protection in the smallest available font size that no one takes notice of them. Could we change this practice? Print this message louder and clearer, may be in a well-designed box with illustrations to draw attention. I am not recommending increase in page count, use the current copyright page, but make it more visible and meaningful.

Let us all work together and begin a few initiatives on World Book and Copyright Day.