Re: [OS:N:] Re: Questionaire about the support of students rights and the freedom in the learning environment

--- Jeff Kinz <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 12, 2003 at 09:51:16AM -0700, James Michael DuPont wrote:
> > Great,
> > now how different is red hats contract with the people licensing
> thier
> > courseware?
> 
> Are you referring to the software portion of the courseware or the
> content portion?

I am looking at this whole thing from the aspect of the rights that are
given up to take part in the entire process.

When you take part in an distance learning program you have the
following restrictions :

1. Restrictions on the usage of the content of the learning materials :
this is the one valid restriction in my eyes that is needed to protect
the investment of the authors in the learning material.
The FSEDU project is founded on the belief that the students have the
right to publish their own statements on what they have learned. The
have the right to submit their homework assignments and test results to
the FSEDU for the consumables database and assign the copyright to the
FSEDU project.

2. Restrictions on the usage of the file format. The student should
have  the right to reject content that is encoded into a non-standard
file format that is covered by patents, or reject an EULA that
restricts the disassembly of the file format or the creation of
alternative viewers.
Microsoft office files fall into this category and the department of
justice has found them guilty of abusing these file formats as part of
their monopoly, and called for the opening of them.
The FSEDU project is founded on the belief that Students should have
the right to receive their learning materials in a standard and open
format.

3. Restrictions on the software that displays the course material. The
students having received their course materials in an open file format
should have the right to modify the software the displays and interacts
with the course files. This precluded non-free plugins.

4. Restrictions on the server software. The schools have the right to
reject any licenses that restrict their modification and maintaining of
the courseware software. They should be able to use the purchased
courseware software to create their own content or modify it for their
own local needed. They should be able to publish these changes as their
own derived works (excluding the original)

5. Restrictions on the authoring software. The authoring software
should be also free of restrictions on usage. I don't need to go into
more detail, do I?


> Also -  Are these "Students rights" you are reffering to any
> different
> than the rights the rest of should have?

The student rights are the ones that are most abused, and they are
dervied from the basic rights covered by the GPL. Because of the
students lack of knowledge, they often don't know that they schools are
betraying their rights. Given the case of the microsoft student
license, they might be illegally observed ( for example in the EU, such
observation is covered by data protection laws) and reported to
microsoft. The FSEDU sees it as its responsability to inform the
students of their rights and to protect them from the abuse of greedy
corporations whose immoral and illegal activities corrupt the schools
and take away the rights of the students on a wholesale level.

> 
> Please remember that any commercial training service has to lock in
> their content so that it cannot be re-distributed outside of their
> control.  If you can solve that portion of the issue for them and 
> still have the kinds of access you want then you may have something
> valid, but don't start posturing until you have a valid alternative.

The publication of known problems, the informing of the rights of the
students and the advising of students and teachers is needed more than
even. The issue of "preventing redistribution" is a deep rooted
mistrust of the students. The mistrust of the students by the providers
of educational material is the motivating factor in this ever
continuing fear of redistribution. You can hardly prevent the
redistribution of materials except for a closed network with physical
control over that area. You need to also prevent spy cameras and other
scanning devices. 

Distance learning precludes the ability to prevent the proliferation of
the learning materials, so it has to be based on contract and a limited
degree of trust. All of these things are orthogonal to freedom of
access the software.  The encryption, authentication and identity
services will be provided by the dotgnu platform for the FSEDU project.

The final aspect of trust and contract are the only real binding forces
in a distance learning environment. You need to have strong encryption
and authentication for the delivery of the material. And when it is
there, then you need basically trust that you have a binding contract
with the student as to the handling of the content of the learning
material.

> 
> I think part of the problem here is that you are having trouble
> disinguishing between what software is and what "training content"
> is.  "Courseware" is so ill-defined its practically undefined and 
> so that term makes it impossible to havea solig logical discusiion
> about the issue.  Please explicitly identify which part you are
> discussing as we move forward.

I have no problem with this. I have been treating the entire set of
restrictions as a whole. 

The question is  : What is the minimal amount of restrictions that you
will place on your students before you are invading their privacy and
mistrusting them. At what point do the contractual agreements go too
far.

I have been quoting microsofts licensing agreements because they are on
the web for public view. I have yet to see RedHats license, I will
request for RedHat to publish example contracts for the their various
learning offerings for a critical review.

mike

=====
James Michael DuPont
http://introspector.sourceforge.net/

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