Open Source education

Now free education resources are available for anyone with an Internet connection, we can download any kinds of information that we are interested. Teacher is not the only source that we can obtain knowledge; everyone can be your teacher. As Issac Newton once said, “If I have seen further, it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants.” Open Source Education (OER) offers us a great opportunity to stand on the shoulders of giants. In our understanding, the giants are not only defined as experts who are famous to the whole world, but also some ordinary people who might live in your neighborhood (Shuya&Yue’s summary reflection paper of Video Design.

We are no long constrained with time and space any more, even most of us don’t have the chance to go the MIT or Yale, and we are provided an opportunity to listen to the lecture which taught by MIT’s teacher. And with the internet connection, we may also enjoy studying while we are sailing in the sea. Therefore, Open Education Resources "can be an efficient way of promoting lifelong learning, both for individuals and for government, and can bridge the gap between non-formal, informal and formal learning." But here also come with the copyright issue, and sometimes government has to use their power to solve such problems.
I remembered some old news I read about 1 ago. There are a lot of Chinese students who learn English by watching American TV series and movies. Informal group has been devoted to translates all the English subtitles into Chinese and all the sources are free online, but in this situation, copyright of those films and TV series has been violated, so Chinese government forced to close several website to stop people downloading films.
So regarding Chinese government’s action, how do you feel about that?

Reference:
Giving knowledge for free: The emergence of open educational resources. OECD
Publishing: Centre for Educational Research and Innovation. (2007). (153 pages).
http://www.oecdbookshop.org/oecd/display.asp?SF1=DI&CID=&LANG=EN&ST1=5L4S6TNG3F9X and http://213.253.134.43/oecd/pdfs/browseit/9607041E.PDF
Geser, Guntram (ed.). (2007, January). Open Educational Practices and Resources:
OLCOS Roadmap 2012 (149 pages). Retrieved on June 25, 2010, from
http://eprints.rclis.org/archive/00009102/01/olcos_roadmap.pdf