Protection of intellectual property rights to content: materials for use

Education is impossible without transferring information between students and tutors. The presentation of information (design, layout, processing) is the main product of the online school. Therefore, such information is subject to protection. In this article, you will find ways to legally protect online school content.

Contents:

• What content rights for online schools are protected?
• Technical ways to protect online school content
• Legal Ways to Protect Online School Content

What content rights for online schools are protected?

Course content is subject to copyright protection. This includes two categories of rights: moral rights and exclusive rights. The former implies that if the information itself is taken in the course, then a link will be given to it and the author will be indicated, for example, quoting the text. Such actions are legal subject to the citation requirements. The exclusive right determines who can use the course. An online school has this right if it is hosting this course. Therefore, the online school is interested in protecting this right. How an online school can obtain the exclusive right to a course can be found in another article from our lawyers.

All methods can be divided into two parts: technical and legal. The first group concerns primarily the content of the course itself and the website of the online school. They are aimed at preventing the borrowing of content, so that the user does not have this opportunity. The second category includes legal methods that establish the consequences of such copying.

Technical ways to protect online school content

The technical methods include:

• Video protection
  • Publishing on those video hosting sites from which it is difficult to download videos. If posting to YouTube seems like the easiest solution at the time of course creation, it could lead to problems in the future. Videos are easily downloaded from YouTube and many of the most famous platforms.
  • Preventing screen recording 
• Content that's hard to copy. If the course is interactive, then the course information itself will not be of value. An interactive course can include feedback, automated tests, interaction between participants, etc.
• Access from multiple devices through one account. It will be suspicious if, through one login, they log in from several devices in completely different locations. The issue of limitations should be considered. Allowing access from only one device will be inconvenient for users, so you can limit the territory with which you can log in with one account.

Legal Ways to Protect Online School Content

Such measures determine how the participants will use the materials from the course. When concluding an agreement with course participants, it is necessary to provide for the boundaries of the participants' use of the materials. Legally, this will be a license, i.e. providing limited use for specific purposes. There are well-known licensing standards (CC - Creative Commons), so you can use one of them. For example, indicate that the material cannot be used for commercial purposes and always indicate the author. You should also put disclaimers that the materials cannot be downloaded or distributed.

It is worth remembering that the online school also receives copyright objects from its participants, for example, if they send texts on the course or create projects. Users will be the authors, and the online school may receive limited rights to use such content. These conditions can also be specified in the contract with the participant.

Thus, the material is one of the main resources that the online school provides. Therefore, it is worth protecting it. The online school has exclusive rights to it, and it is they that allow it to be protected. First of all, it is necessary to provide technical methods for protecting content, but legal methods should not be neglected either, i.e. prescribe in the agreement with the participants how they can use the materials.