In North America especially there has been much debate and controversy over copyright protection, misuse and open resources. Individual people have been charged with copyright infringement for downloading songs and been financially stressed or ruined as a result. This isn’t as common anymore but it is always a risk. People routinely pirate music and movies and infringe on digital and print article and journal copyright without fully understanding the legal ramifications or simply believing they won’t be caught doing so. Many feel they simply have the right to pirate and use others creative materials as their own inherent right. Making educational and other creative resources such as music more open has had a strong focus in North America especially in light of more restrictive changes to copyright law in the United States. In Europe there is also a strong commitment to Open Educational Resources as seen by organizations such as Open Education Europa. In the United States there appears to be a strong counter lobby advocating protection of publishing houses interests, both print and music.
In many other parts of the world, all sorts of products and creations are commonly copied. For example in China you can go into a Chinese mall and purchase music, movies, watches, shoes and clothing and even books that are pirated copies even though it is technically illegal to sell these. This is done quite openly with the exception of higher end watches. While lower end watches that are copies are openly on display for sale, I have been admitted to a small room secreted behind a set of shelves to look at Rolex copies the vendor is selling out of view of police.
As society becomes more globalized, I think it is important to understand, that even if you do have restrictive copyrights on your products and creations, there is a good chance that someone may simply copy it and use it for their own use or market and sell it. This is especially true if it is a quality product. After all, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. One flip side of this argument is that if you make it available under a Creative Commons type license you may at least get credit for producing your product or creation and get greater credit for it.
China is somewhat unique in another way as the internet is filtered by the Great Firewall or Golden Shield which restricts internet traffic in and out of China. This can have significant impact for people accessing Open Educational Resources across the Chinese boarder. Chinese internet users often incur additional charges if western websites are accessed or they may be blocked completely for Chinese users. Many other countries in the world have some version of internet filtering or blocking that can impact people’s ability to access Open Educational Resources or to use social media to build “Personal Learning Networks”.
For students writing scholarly articles and papers there is a need for citation and attribution that overall is acknowledged to be a tedious and complicated process. For students from countries where intellectual piracy and copying is more accepted there can be a greater challenge to them to understand the implications and consequences of not citing and attributing. In some Asian cultures it is a sign of respect and flattery to copy another’s work and therefore often more acceptance and practice to use an expert’s words and thoughts without fully understanding the Western practice of requiring citation and attribution.
More Open Educational Resources, especially ones that do not require attribution, greater education, and greater practical ease when citing and attributing will no doubt help students everywhere to be more successful with less risk of being accused of plagiarism. Also the more we adopt the philosophy that every behaviour is driven by a positive intention, , get curious about the “how” and “why’s” of what people are doing, the greater success we will all have dealing with others around the world.