KNOWLEDGE HYPERMARKET


Copyright for Hypermarket of Knowledge — история изменений

Copyright (related to uploaded school lessons):


Lessons uploaded on the site are not plagiarism and authors` and publishing houses` copyright infringement.


This is a derivative product sent by registered readers of the site, taken by them from open sources and uploaded on the site for the purpose of discussing and evaluating the information provided in the textbooks by the public and specialists.


The League of Education Leaders (an international non-governmental organization) in this regard notes:


1. The lessons are uploaded on the website for free and equal access of all citizens to educational information in order to determine its quality.


2. The lessons are uploaded in the context of necessity of public control over the quality of textbooks as to:


A) compliance with the programs and calendar plans;


B) elimination of errors in the presentation of the material;


3. It has been established that in almost all textbooks there are paragraphs that do not correspond to the curriculum, and vice versa, there are no paragraphs that are provided by the curriculum. This indicates that the textbooks do not correspond to the quality established by national standards, since they contain incomplete, inaccurate and sometimes false information which needs to be corrected.


4. Since textbooks are printed for budget money of taxpayers (parents), parents have the right to know why their children have to study with the textbooks that do not correspond to the standards.


5. The texts are sent to the site from open sources, from other Internet sites, to which we must necessarily provide all the references. Here is the letter that was sent to us: "Dear adults," a sixth-year pupil from the city of Smela, Cherkassy region writes, "since we have not been provided with the textbooks on most subjects, we decided to upload them on our personal sites so that to prevent discomfort for other children of our country, because our country is so poor and this way they will be able to use them. Help other children too."


6. There are no textbooks on the site, but excerpts, quotations and examples from them, and then there is an analysis and criticism with the aim of improving knowledge through its discussion by the public, professionals, practicing teachers, parents, methodologists and specialists.


7. The site is based on the principle of an interactive blog (as in Wikipedia), where each teacher, parent, pupil, specialist and even any other citizen can make own corrections and suggestions as to the text of the lessons and additional "colorful" options and express own opinion regarding the information set forth in a textbook.


8. All references to the authors and correspondents are necessarily included by us. If the authorship is unknown, controversial or inaccurate, we ask to send us the copyright information. Our site is not an editorial product, but a collective work of all the participants in the discussion of a topic and the readers from different cities and countries with the aim to create a modern "folk" textbook in the name of the best knowledge of our children, so that they will not become losers in life for the reason that they were taught with poor textbooks.


9. In cases of categorical requests from the authors or publishing houses to delete paragraphs or textbooks from the site, the editorial office is ready to meet these wishes and proposals, considering that the authors and publishers thereby recognize the imperfection of their publications and they are ashamed of the mistakes made which are incompatible with the education of schoolchildren. We recognize the right of such authors and publishers to admit their mistakes and to withdraw the books. Acknowledgement of guilt is usually perceived positively by teachers and pupils of all schools and they no longer purchase such textbooks.


In the case of withdrawal of poor quality books, we provide an opportunity for other authors, publishers, teachers and professionals to send their versions of textbooks, study materials that are considered alternative, and often have better content quality.


This way we help the real professionals to "break through" and gain recognition in the educational environment, in the community of teachers and schools and also to improve the quality of education.


10. According to law, before mass distribution at schools all books must undergo mandatory testing. Unfortunately, this is not the way now and textbooks get to schools "raw", which means they are experimental. In this case public discussion is simply necessary for them. Especially since it is not our editorial board, but there are pupils and teachers who find mistakes and inaccuracies. Our task is to prevent a situation when the state spends huge money on repeating old mistakes in textbooks.


11. Information on inaccuracies in textbooks coming to the site indicates that the content of many textbooks is of poor quality. But till now there was no tool for quick collecting and generalizing these complaints and mistakes. Now it is possible to discuss the content of textbooks quickly and correct them on forums and blogs.


12. We do not entrench upon authorship of textbooks and we do not have such a goal. Moreover, the site wants the authors and publishers to continue to print their books, but only after discussion by the public and without mistakes, or to enter into discussion with the readers of the site for the purpose of elimination of the mistakes.


13. Presentation of information from the sent textbooks on the site is not a plagiarism, since, firstly, the author of the material is always indicated and all the necessary references are given. Secondly, the materials are sent to us from open sources. Thirdly, we do not upload paragraphs from textbooks, but quotes, and only those of them (or fragments), which contain mistakes, defects, and ambiguities - with the aim of public discussion and confirmation of the correctness of the author or the need for correction of the texts.


Quotes and criticisms of texts do not apply to the materials that fall into the category of plagiarism. Neither by a letter, nor by the spirit of the laws in force the site seeks to assign itself the rights to the content.


This statement corresponds to the provisions of Article 21 of the Law of Ukraine No. 3792-XII dated 23.12.1993, "On Copyright and Related Rights", which stipulates that without the consent of the author or any other person who has copyrights, but with an obligatory indication of the author's name and the source of borrowing, it is allowed to use quotations from published works in a volume justified by the purpose, including the citation of articles from newspapers and magazines in the form of press reviews, if it is caused by critical, polemical, scientific or informational character of the product into which the citations are included; use of literary and artistic works to the extent justified by the intended purpose, as illustrations in broadcasts, recordings or video recordings of educational character.


14. For those who have the intent to challenge in a court of law the uploading of some educational information and opinion on a textbook and its contents on the site, our position is as follows. We believe that this is evidence of the intention of the authors and publishers to hide their mistakes and to get rid of the responsibility for them, as well as to keep paid fees. For some reason, mistakes of doctors or pilots are considered a catastrophe, but a taboo is imposed on mistakes in textbooks. The League of Education Leaders intends to reverse this wrong tendency and ensure that the authors of textbooks and publishing houses are responsible for the mistakes. And all textbooks will have to pass a public test. This is what the "Law on Education" requires.


15. Textbooks are a special intellectual product. School textbooks contain information accumulated by humanity, which is not subject to intellectual property rights (Pythagoras theorem, Mendeleyev's table, names of chemical elements, poetry, etc.). In the textbooks authorship is provided only for the way of presentation and completion of educational information. Textbooks by their definition are not completely exclusive. They are also based on previous sources (by the way, for some reason, without indicating these sources).


In this regard, the method of presenting educational information on the site is also an object of intellectual property. Here the well-known educational information (corrected by readers) is completed with unique options, video clips, ideal lessons, illustrations and other inclusions, which eliminates the issues of plagiarism and borrowing.


Part 3, Article 433 of the Civil Code of Ukraine (hereinafter referred to as the Civil Code of Ukraine) stipulates that copyright does not extend to ideas, processes, methods of activity or pedagogical concepts as such. Consequently, we can conclude that copyright protects not ideas themselves, but the form of their expression.


16. Scientific Research Institute has been created on the site. One of its aims is to improve the content of textbooks. The Institute includes the most advanced teachers of the CIS and Western countries which are the members of the League of Teachers-Coaches and Education Leaders.


17. International practice. In the autumn of 2009 on the initiative of German journalist and science popularizer Lars Fischer a petition was sent to the Bundestag requesting the results of all research and textbooks performed for public funds be freely available on the Internet. After all, money for science and education is provided by taxpayers, and meanwhile, textbooks cost huge amounts of money and "headaches" to ministries and publishing houses. The petition was supported and signed by 23 600 citizens and in June this year the Bundestag adopted a law on the limitation of copyright for textbooks published at the expense of budget allocations.


18. In the event of a litigation involving incorrect information and errors in existing textbooks (i.e., their defect), we will file counter lawsuits on protection of citizens' rights with the support of consumer protection bodies with the involvement of experts.


Textbooks containing incorrect information inflict material and moral damage on society and its citizens.


19. We will insist that in case of public detection of mistakes in textbooks the publishers and authors will be obliged to withdraw such inappropriate textbooks. For example, automobile companies, manufacturers of poor quality medicines, food products and many others act this way in the event of malfunctioning or inappropriate quality of their products.


20. In order to study the quality of the textbooks, the League of Education Leaders organized a large-scale event (all over the CIS) under the heading "Find a mistake in the textbook", which received a response from millions of teachers and pupils and during which we received fragments of textbooks, themes, paragraphs, excerpt and whole textbooks. Some materials have been systematized at the request of the readers to make further general discussion easier for them.


Our appeals:


"No to bad textbooks!"


"Knowledge must always be fresh!"



Copyright for Hypermarket of Knowledge


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