This extension allows teachers to view a list of all files in a course and to change the license for each file. It is also possible to download the files in a ZIP archive.
Adding a license is not straightforward in Moodle.
- You need to add the license to the database table "license" manually. For example: INSERT INTO license (shortname, fullname, source, enabled, version) VALUES ('short', 'fullname', '', 0, 2016112100);
- Add the english fullname to lang/en/license.php, e.g. append to the file: $string['short'] = 'fullname';
- Specify other translations via Site administration -> Language -> Language customisation
- Enable the new license on Site administration -> Plugins -> Licenses -> Manage licenses
- If you want to change the ordering of the licenses, you need to modify the row with the name "licenses" in the database table "config".
We are using this plugin at Technische Universität Berlin in order to conform to german law (§ 52a UrhG). Copyrighted texts have to be made unavailable after a course ends. Since only a few of our teachers upload copyrighted texts and we want our students to be able to view their old courses (and non-copyrighted files), we use this plugin as a solution.
Our teachers specify the license of each file (through this plugin or the Moodle file picker). That way, we can identify the copyrighted files and make only these unavailable. We replaced the default licenses from Moodle by "License unexamined", "Copyrighted (provided in accordance with §52a UrhG)", "Approved by author", "Open content", and "Public domain". "License unexamined" is the default license.
The files (documents) that are currently unavailable for students can be highlighted by the plugin. The following settings need to be defined in the config.php:
- array $CFG->fileexpirylicenses which licenses (shortnames) expire
- int $CFG->fileexpirydate when do files expire (unix time)
- array $CFG->filemimetypes['document'] mime types of documents
Some modifications to the Moodle core are required to restrict the download of copyrighted files. Our patch for Moodle 3.2 can be found here: https://github.com/innocampus/patches/blob/master/Moodle32-Check-file-license-and-expiry-date.patch