Overcoming The Ethical Dangers Of Academic Fair Use In The High Technology Classroom

The primary factor causing the world to shrink in the 21st century is the Internet. While webenabled services enhance information sharing and facilitate collaboration, the proliferation of the Internet has also led to an erosion of respect for intellectual property. A key contributor to this erosion is the concept of Academic Fair Use. On the surface, Academic Fair Use would appear to be a means of protecting intellectual property. In reality, Fair Use policies can lead to an increase in less-than-ethical practices that are bred in academia and then transfer to the workplace. In this paper, we identify the problems associated with employing Academic Fair Use, and then share techniques that we use to help our students internalize ethical practices.