Post subject: Re: Does anyone studied the G.I.A e-Learning courses?
Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2014 3:41 pm
New to the Forum or The Quiet Type
Joined: Fri Sep 26, 2014 2:13 pm Posts: 2
slscanada wrote:
Hi behzad!
I am finishing my fourth e-learning course this weekend. How can I help you with?
Sunny
hi Sunny All my Gemological books (G.I.A) have been stolen from my office. this files very very essential for me.now I'm looking these books with P.D.F format. Unfortunately I'm living in Iran and I can not buy these books online because iran on sanctions and i can't transfer money for buy this book or register to G.I.A again . Your support will be invaluable for me Please help me if you can i never forget your kindness
Post subject: Re: Does anyone studied the G.I.A e-Learning courses?
Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2014 11:27 am
Site Admin
Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2005 12:22 pm Posts: 21600 Location: San Francisco
behzad wrote:
hi Sunny All my Gemological books (G.I.A) have been stolen from my office. this files very very essential for me.now I'm looking these books with P.D.F format. Unfortunately I'm living in Iran and I can not buy these books online because iran on sanctions and i can't transfer money for buy this book or register to G.I.A again . Your support will be invaluable for me Please help me if you can i never forget your kindness
Best Regards behzad
Forgive me if I sound skeptical, but what a load of crap.
And, slscanada, your post has been removed because as you pointed out the courses are copyrighted and GemologyOnline does not support copyright infringement.
Post subject: Re: Does anyone studied the G.I.A e-Learning courses?
Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2014 12:36 pm
Established Member
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2014 10:04 pm Posts: 27
In case any reader was curious about what my original post was...
Disclaimer: I have fully abided to the copyright law and I did not agree to send the files to anyone or provide any link for download the copyrighted materials. I was just mentioning that I found the material at Google when I first started the course without any links provided. I am totally agreed with Barbra's action for the post removal if she found it is inappropiate with the forum.
Post subject: Re: Does anyone studied the G.I.A e-Learning courses?
Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2014 1:07 pm
Site Admin
Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2005 12:22 pm Posts: 21600 Location: San Francisco
No biggie, Sunny. It is legally OK for an individual to share copyrighted information with another INDIVIDUAL, but it is not legal to share it publicly.
It is legally OK for an individual to share copyrighted information with another INDIVIDUAL, but it is not legal to share it publicly.
(Side note: I'm afraid that's not really true. It would probably limit the damages they could seek and the chances of being caught are very low. But yeah, otherwise it would be totally legal to get a copy of your best bud's music library or rips of their DVD collection, which it also isn't.) (But I am not a lawyer.)
Post subject: Re: Does anyone studied the G.I.A e-Learning courses?
Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2014 10:17 pm
Site Admin
Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2005 12:22 pm Posts: 21600 Location: San Francisco
Actually it is.
Pier to pier sharing has been exploited by online venues such as UTorrent, etc. They operate within a very gray area. But the reason they are still able to operate is because pier to pier sharing is quite legal.
For instance, if I loan YOU my copy of the GIA Colored Stone Course, Scarodactyl, for the purpose of research, I have broken no laws. It is considered "fair use". If YOU in turn share it with everyone on Facebook, you would be in violation of copyright.
Per Section 107 of Copyright Law and Policy, contains a list of the various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered fair for public distribution , such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Section 107 also sets out four factors to be considered in determining whether or not a particular use is fair.
1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes 2. The nature of the copyrighted work 3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole 4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work
Make sense?
Over the years, some folks have considered me violating their copyright when I quoted a portion of their copyrighted text for discussion and pier review. (Frankly this only happens when our members shoot their hypothesis to hell) In every case I was perfectly within my rights under section 107.
First, peer-to-peer doesn't mean a file going directly from one person to another. Users are connected to a larger network and essentially end up sending individual bits of a particular desired file to others in the network who need it even as they can be getting bits from other people. And you can absolutely get in trouble for that if the file you're distributing is under copyright, and people sometimes even do. Peer to peer is, in and of itself, perfectly legal and has legitimate uses. However it doesn't do anything to make illegal distribution or sharing legal.
Second, while fair use does make allowances for educational and scholarly usage, it is far from simple in its application. There are a lot of layers to consider, and the more substantial a portion of the work that's being used, the more it's being used in the same manner as the original, and the more chance it has of commercially harming the original, the less of a chance it has of being ruled fair use by a court. See this long and slogging document: http://copyright.lib.utexas.edu/copypol2.html
SCENARIO 1: A professor copies one article from a periodical for distribution to the class.
FAIR USE? Yes. Distribution of multiple copies for classroom use is fair use. However, the repeated use of a copyrighted work, from term-to-term, requires more scrutiny in a fair use evaluation. Repeated use, as well as a large class size, may weigh against fair use....
...SCENARIO 5: A professor wishes to use a textbook he considers to be too expensive. He makes copies of the book for the class.
FAIR USE? No. Although the use is educational, the professor is using the entire work, and by providing copies of the entire book to his students, he has affected the market. This conduct clearly interferes with the marketing monopoly of the copyright owner. The professor should place a copy on reserve or require the students to purchase the book.
SCENARIO 6: A professor decides to make three copies of a textbook and place them on reserve in the library for the class.
FAIR USE? No. This conduct still interferes with the marketing monopoly of the copyright owner. The professor may place a copy of the textbook, not the copies, on reserve."
Note that the fact that behzad is unable to actually buy the book might be a mitigating factor in this particular case. Or maybe it's like, triple illegal--maybe they've made it qualify as international traffic in arms or some garbage like that. (I don't know, still not a lawyer). But in general there's not a blanket provision to share things like coursepacks or textbooks because they're for educational or scholarly use.
Anyway, I'm really not trying to tell you what to do or not do--but I would suggest that it might make your life easier to not post about sharing material like this on a public forum like this. I'm guessing the GIA are probably pretty cool and understanding, especially towards accomplished alumni, but yeah.
Post subject: Re: Does anyone studied the G.I.A e-Learning courses?
Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 12:28 pm
Site Admin
Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2005 12:22 pm Posts: 21600 Location: San Francisco
Fine scarodactyl, you are certainly free to conduct your behavior in any way you interpret the laws of copyright and fair use.
The issue is will anyone on GemologyOnline provide this behzad with pdf copies of the GIA course material and the answer is "no". Should anyone on our forum provide behzad with instructions on how to download these courses through some obscure back door. The answer is "no" again.
Post subject: Re: Does anyone studied the G.I.A e-Learning courses?
Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 9:08 pm
Site Admin
Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2005 12:22 pm Posts: 21600 Location: San Francisco
I do and I believe it is still being offered. As I hear peripherally, it is an annual cost which allows a GG to download any new material. I can ask Starla Turner about it when she returns from Burma and Thailand.
Post subject: Re: Does anyone studied the G.I.A e-Learning courses?
Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2014 3:05 am
Valued Contributor
Joined: Sun Mar 11, 2007 10:03 pm Posts: 341 Location: San Diego
If you are a GG, you are eligible to enroll in the continuing education program. This gives you access to all of the current course materials (both online and as downloadable .pdfs I believe) along with several "assignments" that can be completed for credit, which usually include interviews from trade members on the latest treatments, gem sources, testing equipment, etc.
Cost is currently around $200 for the year iirc.
_________________ Paul Mattlin Senior Manager, Online Education Division
* My posts are my own and do not reflect the opinions or policies of my employer
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