Re: students' rights?

On Sun, Apr 16, 2000, Gary Becker <gbecker[_at_]earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> Many K-12, public school districts or schools are now posting their
> own web sites. With approval from the district/school, students are
> posting materials they have created to meet course requirements or
> have been encouraged to be creative to enhance the content of the
> website.
>
> With the preceding as background, does the school district/school have
> the copyright rights to all materials it posts on its website (assuming
> they are not copying from copyrighted sources) or do the students have
> a claim to copyright in their materials? Does it make any difference if
> the students produce the materials on school time using school equipment
> and software than it would be if they produced it at home on their own
> equipment with their own software? Thank you very much.

Gary,

   I cannot see how the works would be a "work for hire", which is the usual way in which an employer is the "author" of a work. If a teacher posted, the answer would be quite different, absent a written agreement that gave the teacher rights (such as a contract).

   Even if the children signed an agreement assigning the copyright to the school, it is unlikely that your K-12 students have the legal capacity to bind themselves in a contract (state law would control, and I am not licensed in Florida...). Some older students might be above the legal age, and able to enter into such a contract, but I doubt many first graders could...

   I think you will find that where the work was done, and on whose computer, is not very relevant to the answer....

   If there is a "live" legal issue at stake here, consult an attorney. A teacher might have some contractual obligations, and could be at risk if they took sides. In addition, it is not clear what the school might be claiming a copyright in... a compilation of the works might belong to the school, if the compilation was made by a school employee, and the work was assigned to that employee. That would not give the school the rights in each individual work, however. It would prevent someone else from copying the collection, and using it for any purpose, without permission.

Tom Workman
<tworkman[_at_]erols.com> Received on Mon Apr 17 2000 - 20:44:24 GMT