DRM, copyright minefield in the Digital Age

A White Paper, just published by William W. Fisher & William McGeveran, provides a comprehensive 117 page report on the increasingly complex issues around DRM and copyright for educators in the Digital Era.
"The Digital Learning Challenge: Obstacles to Educational Uses of Copyrighted Material in the Digital Age" The paper is part of the The Berkman Center for Internet & Society Research Publication Series and has a Creative Commons License.

"Digital technology makes informative content easier to find, to access, to manipulate and remix, and to disseminate." The ability to share and connect beyond the classroom enriches learning experiences but opens up a minefield as illustrated by a large range of examples and case studies in this report.

The authors suggest that "copyright law and related structures impede the full promise of digital technology for education where instead they should be enabling creative uses of content."

All is not gloom and doom however, as the report concludes with a discussion on recent trends in attempting to overcome the obstacles and possible paths to reform.