|
An increasing number of language centre courses use in-house teaching material either in the form of handouts or entire textbooks. The laws regarding copyright matters in Oman have not been fully articulated to the Language Centre’s staff in the past, but the Sultanate’s recent enrollment in the World’s Trade Organization has prompted some changes which will require more stringent practice from now on.
Below are certain guidelines to observe when using material from other sources:
- A simple rule of thumb is not to use material that is intended specifically for ESL/EFL use (i.e. English language textbooks and supplementary teaching material) without a written permission from the publisher, since this directly conflicts with the economic interests of the copyright holders of this material. If a certain textbook is out of print, you should first contact the publisher to determine whether they are willing to make the material available for purchase before reproducing the material.
- Material in the public domain (i.e. government documents or material old enough to be in the public domain) can be used, but you should always acknowledge the original source of the information in your material. In addition, any material that is made available through news sources (newspapers, magazines, TV and radio news broadcasts, etc.) can also be used for educational purposes as long as you cite the sources.
- If any of our in-house material contains obvious copyright violations, it is the responsibility of the programme coordinator and the material writer to correct the situation.
- The material referred to in the guidelines above includes paper and electronic texts, audio and video material as well as pictures and photographs.
|