Case+57+-+Software+Dilemma

Fair Use in Education – A Software Story Recently a teacher wrote a grant proposal for a new and exciting software program for her school district. The “mini” grant program also known as Dream Grants allow teachers to think outside the box and develop new and exciting educational opportunities for students. This teacher’s grant proposal was selected and the school district allocated the needed funds and purchased a brand new computer software program with a single lab license. The program was proposed and approved only for a single computer lab. The software company offered a few different purchase options for this program but the teacher who wrote the grant knew if the price was reasonable the grant would more likely be accepted. She decided to propose the lab-license package, which would be considered a multiple –user license. The language in the agreement with the computer software company is that a lab consists of 25 stations and therefore 25 licenses are allowed for this new software program. The program arrived and the MIS department loaded the program on all 25 PC stations in the classroom. The program arrived at the end of June right as school was closing for the summer. The process of loading the program was one of the last projects for the MIS department before summer. The teacher had planned on introducing the new software to students in the fall. When the teacher finally got a chance to sit down and use this new program she realized how extensive the program was and a considerable amount of training would need to take place for her to be an effective teacher of the software in the fall. She knew all 25 available licenses were already used up in the lab so she requested a copy of the program to put on her laptop so she could train with it over the summer. The MIS department made a copy of the DVD and gave the teacher this copy. The language of the software purchase would consider this an illegal copy of the program. This is similar to something I experience a few years ago in my district. This sincere offers the teacher and the school district protection under Fair Use clause. This copy was done with the sole purpose to help educate students and is done under the guides of non-profit situation. The nature of the reason to copy is to effectively use the product in the classroom. The copy made of this program also does not affect the sales market for this program to other schools or even to a future larger purchase by this district in the future. This example would be closely related to teachers receiving an instructor’s textbook to examine before a purchase a purchase is made by the district. Ted Evans New Jersey City University