Re: faculty coursework online

On Fri, Feb 25, 2000, Lyda Peters <lydap[_at_]aol.com> wrote:
>
> I am co-chairing a faculty committee on intellectual property rights.
> The committee has been established in our institution because, for
> the first time, we are offering a small number of courses on-line to
> students. Faculty are concerned that if they agree to teach courses
> on-line, much of the innovation, research, and curriculum developed
> will become the property of the College. The college, on the other
> hand, asked for advice from their lawyers and were told that this
> work does belong to the college under "work-for-hire" copyright law.
>
> Needless to say this does not provide any incentive for faculty to
> teach on-line. Because of the college's newness in this arena, I
> would like to pose the following questions:
>
> How should I frame the discussion between faculty and the college so
> that we can move towards some type of consensus which supports the
> rights of faculty?
>
> Do professors have any rights by law to "intellectual property" once
> they start to teach online? If yes, what rights?
>
> Which websites would be of most help in developing a policy on
> intellectual property?

You may wish to consult the University of Texas IP policy web pages. I think (for what it's worth) that they take a pretty fair approach to the matter. While a university may have a default right to faculty product as a work made for hire (and it may or may not, depending on the circumstances), as you point out a university enforces that right against its faculty at its own peril.

Three links to the UT policy are:

   http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/whowns.htm

for the general web page dealing with property rights:

   http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/telecrs.htm

which specifically addresses distance learning (including web based courses); and

   http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/cprtindx.htm

which is the general index page to the site.

I hope this is of some help.

David

David R. Hale, Esq.
Astrachan, Gunst, Goldman & Thomas, P.C. 20 S. Charles Street, 6th Floor
Baltimore, Maryland 21201
(410) 783-3539
(410) 783-3530 (facsimile)
dhale[_at_]aggt.com Received on Sat Feb 26 2000 - 21:17:36 GMT