case study

Case study

Completing a digital assignment on Shakespeare’s Hamlet

Entrance to Shakespeare's Birthplace sign-13Feb2005.jpg

Theresa Brown, is a first year, registered student taking a Media Studies course at the local university. She is preparing an assignment on Hamlet by William Shakespeare. She is required to publish the assignment online, and also prepare a slide show with an audio summary. The university provides a hosted website for each of its students in the course but access to the site is restricted to registered students taking the course who are provided with password access. A number of students do not have affordable access to the internet at home, so Theresa wants to include local copies of supporting resources she has found on the open web for download from the website that will only be accessible through the institution’s local network. She plans to include the following resources:

  1. The full text of Hamlet edited by Charles Kean who died in 1868.
  2. An image of the portrait of Hamlet, by William Morris Hunt (1824 – 1879) housed by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
  3. A digital copy of the Cobbe portrait of William Shakespeare recently discovered in March 2009. (See press release published by The Guardian.)
  4. A copy of the BBC video providing an overview of the major themes of the play.
  5. Theresa has compiled a slide show with an audio summary which she will host on Slideshare. Her slide show was based on her own original research work drawing on a winning essay published by Penguin on the Signet Essay Competition site, openly accessible on the web.

Question 4: The BBC video covering the major themes of Hamlet

assessment

Copyright questions on the BBC video

This question refers to this BBC video.

Choose the correct option. Afterwards, we suggest that you review the feedback on the incorrect options as these also contain valuable information.
  • Is the video protected by copyright?
    • Yes
      • Correct. The video is an artistic work and is protected by copyright which is owned by the BBC.
    • No
      • Incorrect. The video is owned by the BBC and is protected by copyright because it is an artistic work.
  • Given that anybody with an Internet connection can access and view the video, can Theresa include a copy of the video in her course?
    • Yes
      • Incorrect. The fact that the video is accessible by anyone on the web, does not change the status of the copyright. The terms of use on the BBC site suggests that users outside the United Kingdom would need to secure permission. However, copyright licensing agreements negotiated by the university for the payment of a fee may permit this use.
    • No
      • Correct. Theresa would not be able to make a local copy of the video for inclusion in her course without prior permission from the copyright holder or clearances based on existing copyright licensing agreements. At best she can include a link to the BBC video, ensuring that visitors to her published site learners are clear that they are viewing the video on the BBC website at the point they leave her web site.