In an age where access to ideas and research has never been easier, copyrights are often seen as an unnecessary barrier to the free flow of information. However, the role of copyrights in creating an academic environment where original research is rewarded is rarely recognised.
The University’s Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) Library, Karachi, brought together lawyers, researchers and well-known figures from the publishing industry at a workshop Copyright for Academics and Plagiarism to sha
Speakers and participants at the seminar.
re their expertise about intellectual property rights as well as advice on how to maintain the University’s standards on academic integrity.
In her presentation, Elizabeth Oyange, copyright associate for the University, explained how copyrights relate to the expression of an idea and extend beyond written mediums to cover digital works and all kinds of audiovisual material such as music, video and photography.
Commenting on the importance of copyrighted materials to the academic sector, she said: “Adherence to copyright laws and following correct procedures in using existing research can create an environment in which the intellectual property of an individual is respected and the findings of researchers are duly recognised. Such an environment is conducive for quality research work and can only be built if faculty and students are aware of the guidelines to follow when developing existing research,” she added.
Elizabeth stressed the importance of seeking permission to use copyrighted materials and explained the processes by which other scholars’ work can be used in academic courses and publications. She also outlined a number of situations in which researchers could inadvertently be committing copyright infringements by relying too heavily on a specific source.
She added that researchers who were aware of how they could inadvertently end up plagiarising someone else’s work developed a tendency to look at existing research in a new light and to focus on making original contributions to the body of knowledge.
Khawaja Mustafa, head librarian at the AKU, FHS Library added that the University is in process of establishing a Copyright Office and added that processes were already in place to ensure that all course materials and research materials are rightfully obtained.
He encouraged faculty to consult the Copyright Office, the Legal Affairs unit or the Library at any time during the publication process to ensure that they are in line with internal policy on intellectual property rights and to clarify any doubts about possible copyright infringements.
In her presentation, Fizza Kazmi, legal affairs manager at AKU, focused on the laws that protect copyrighted materials and explained how infringements were punishable under the Copyright (Amendment) Act of 1992. The maximum penalty is a jail term of three months and a fine of Rs 100,000, she stated.
Elaborating on how copyrights could be infringed, Fizza mentioned that efforts to reprint, imitate, perform or reproduce a copyrighted work could constitute an offence. However, she added that the concept of fair-dealing enables anyone to use part of someone else’s work so long as permission has been received and so far as use of the work is non-commercial and in line with license terms.
“The concept of fair dealing is difficult to define and would always be a judgement call that rests with the author. Awareness on recommended practice such as the use of links to distribute an academic article rather that producing copies of it should help ensure integrity for the University faculty,” Fizza explained.
She added that those seeking copyright protection for their work need to submit an application to Pakistan’s Registrar of Copyrights, a process which can take between six and eight months to complete.
While laws that protect intellectual property are in place, Oxford University Press Managing Director Ameena Saiyid drew attention to the “appalling” attitude towards copyright infringement and plagiarism in the country.
She criticised the view that “pirates” were doing a social good by making work freely available by highlighting that those who produce counterfeit copies of books were the only ones to benefit financially. All other stakeholders who invest their time and effort in the project receive no return.
“Copyright infringement hurts, most directly, all those who earn their incomes from their scholarship or creativity, and especially those who are the final users of their work.
“Piracy can be curbed only through severe punishments for those found in violation of the law. Unfortunately, that is not the case as there have been instances on which perpetrators have been let go after paying paltry fines. Apart from annual losses worth millions of rupees to publishing houses, piracy is also devastating for authors and is bound to have a knock-on effect on book culture,” she said.
Khawaja Mustafa added that a society that respected intellectual property benefited from an environment in which people were comfortable in sharing their knowledge. He stated that it was unfortunate that while everyone learnt from books there is little incentive to write books because of the challenge of piracy and the heavy cost of publishing one’s own work.
Goethe-Institut Pakistan Director Stefan Winkler also spoke at the event and highlighted how international initiatives in the field of art such as europeana collections and in publishing like Open Access 2020 were expanding access to information. He added that the growth in open access publications were steadily presenting an alternative to subscription-based journals.
A total of 134 participants, representing forty academic and research institutions in Sindh, were present at the workshop. The workshop was opened by AKU University Librarian Normand Demers and the vote of thanks was presented by Professor Shahid Pervez, chair of the FHS Library committee.