28 September, Tuesday, 14.30 – 16.30

Parallel session: Legal and user issues in the online environment

Presentation title: Is copying unsafe? Copyrights and child safety online.

Copyright law is nowadays the key factor which determines access to and use of any content. Whereas two decades ago copyright concerned only a narrow circle of authors, creators and middlemen, today it applies to anyone who creates, copies or downloads the e-content. At the same time copyright awareness is rather shallow and Poland suffers from lack of law education programmes.

In my presentation I will show the importance which copyright has for Internet users and the need for copyright education. I will also prove that teaching copyright does not amount to teaching about copyright infringement, its violation or copyright protection attributed to professional creators. To explain to children and young people that they are, or soon will be, the subjects of copyright law and that they can consciously manage their own or other people’s intellectual property is of the utmost importance.