October 4, 2007
Berkeley Tunes in to YouTube
The University of California at Berkeley has never been shy about giving away course lectures online: Its pioneering Webcasting site has been up and running for several years, and its newer iTunes page includes recordings from almost 80 courses, all available for free.
Now the university has gone a step further, posting more than 200 course videos on a new, slick-looking YouTube channel. Among the lectures already airing on the channel are discourses on human anatomy, electrical engineering, and an “introduction to the science of nonviolence.”
The site seems to be a hit. More than 2,000 YouTube users have already “subscribed” to the Berkeley channel, and that number is certain to rise considerably in the coming days. For colleges that have joined iTunes U. or started separate podcasting projects, there’s a lesson to be had here: If you’re really serious about using the Web to disseminate lectures, it pays to try as many different distribution methods as possible. —Brock Read
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Do Berkeley and it’s professors retain intellectual property?
— Jesse Oct 4, 01:26 PM #
Of course. Distributing your material doesn’t magically turn the ownership or the intellectual property rights over to the viewers.
Current Copyright law protects the owner/creater the moment a work is “fixed in a tangible form” (i.e., recorded on video).
YouTube is uncharted territory and it remains to be seen how easy it is to enforce a copyright, but you don’t lose ownership or copyright by sharing your work (that only happens with patents).
— Wildcat Oct 5, 09:49 AM #
I’m curious about how they customized their channel and were able to brand it with their logo, etc.
— Sue Maberry Oct 5, 01:00 PM #