No former Information Ethics students consider financial benefits to publishers as one of the purposes of copyright, while about half of other students did. No Information Ethics students knew about the right to make personal copies of owned materials. Former Information Ethics students were slightly more aware of most of the possible
punishments for copyright infringement than other students. There are indications that Information Ethics students are more likely than other students to support a hypothetical right to reuse images from anywhere, as long as there are not notices explicitly forbidding this practice. Information Ethics students saw authors/creators, publishers, lawyers, and society as beneficiaries at a higher rate than other populations; perhaps taking the Information Ethics course prepared these students to think deeply about the benefits of intellectual property rights. Most former Information Ethics students (along with a majority of library science students) are of the opinion that it is acceptable to use other people’s work if you are not profiting from it. Students having taken Information Ethics coursework may be more sympathetic than other students to the copying of copyrighted content when it is motivated by something other than personal profit. In discussions with
colleagues, the researcher heard an example of an interesting theory which may be considered, given these results: perhaps LIS students with higher levels of ethics training will be more accepting of illegal downloading of copyrighted materials, since there is a great emphasis in the current LIS curriculum about the benefits of the open access movement, the hardships experienced by libraries as a result of high prices charged by subscription databases, and the difficult overall position of library collection development in an era of massive budget cuts to library funds. Again, given strong support from an educated population, perhaps not-for-profit use of copyrighted materials should indeed receive stronger protection within intellectual property law. In discussions with
colleagues, the researcher heard an example of an interesting theory which may be considered, given these results: perhaps LIS students with higher levels of ethics training will be more accepting of illegal downloading of copyrighted materials, since there is a great emphasis in the current LIS curriculum about the benefits of the open access movement, the hardships experienced by libraries as a result of high prices charged by subscription databases, and the difficult overall position of library collection development in an era of massive budget cuts to library funds. More research is needed to come to definitive conclusions, especially among non-student LIS populations and with controls for age and professional experience.
Summary
Much is still unknown about library and information science students’ attitudes about intellectual property rights. The researcher hopes that this research has uncovered the prevailing attitudes of current LIS students in relation to this controversial topic. In addition, the survey or ethics training experience for possible correlation with attitudes may support a need for additional copyright ethics training in LIS. Finally, the division between information science and library science students’ differences in attitudes and levels of ethics training received may point to a need for more explicit ethics training within both information and library science, but information science in particular. The sample for this research is small, but the qualitative aspect of mixed methods research allows for meaningful thematic conclusions to be drawn from small, representative samples such as this. These exploratory results may be helpful in further research about LIS student attitudes about intellectual property rights.
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