EU Screws Up Copyright Ruling on Student's Presentation:
It would seem obvious to me that educational use should be a valid exception from copyright law. After all, copyright exists for the benefit of society, and educating the next generation is to our collective benefit.
The concept of fair use is clearly established in US copyright law, and in fact Germany has a similar law. Furthermore, the EU copyright directive states that EU members can pass laws granting a copyright exception for education purposes.
But this court went against both common sense and existing policies to rule that because the student's presentation was posted online, the copyright was infringed.
That is a terrible ruling, with a frankly nonsensical justification. It is based on the assumption that putting the photo online was a unique and special thing, when in fact everything is put online these days. It is 2018, and I am surprised the school hadn't required the kid to put the presentation on Slideshare, Google Docs or some other online service because they wanted to the student to learn how to use the online tools.
The fact the court can't see that is evidence of just how out of date they are and how little they know about modern times.
(Via The Digital Reader)
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