Do users want more content in their OER or in the Commons? Does fair use help or hinder OERs? Whom do we serve: the user or the instructor?
As producers of OERs, and OpenCourseWare in particular, we exist in a space of tension: what best represents the instructor's content (and intent) and what best serves the user? Copyright restrictions increase this tension by limiting what we are able to reproduce. Image removed due to copyright restrictions can frustrate the user at best, and diminish the quality of the resource worst. Exceptions and limitations to copyright, such as fair use in the U.S., only take us so far. Should we be producing a more complete resource, restrictions and all? Or do we better serve the user ? and the OER movement by licensing as much content into the Commons as we can? This is a chance to discuss what the balance between these two priorities should and can be.