RE: Re: Copyright and Distance Education

From: Fletcher, Eric <FletcherE[_at_]darden.virginia.edu>
Date: Fri, 01 Aug 2003 14:19:53 -0400

I did say "and faculty and staff sign agreements to this end." in my email which you quoted. That certainly would be a binding agreement between two parties.

Where a separate written agreement is not executed, but the written policy is in place and provided to the employee who then creates the work may raise a few issues, but it seems more likely to be a work for hire then not. However, the facts of each individual case would control.

Additionally it could be argued that an executory contract based on the university's copyright policy (the terms of the contract) is formed between the faculty member and the university (the parties) when the faculty member accepts substantial financial assistance for the product (consideration) from the university. Of course, the intent of the parties would then be at issue.

In any event, the best practice is to have staff and faculty execute an agreement with regard to the policy so that there are no surprises for the employee. Additionally, generous royalty sharing and career rewards for productive faculty and staff are important parts of any I.P. policy.

Eric L. Fletcher
Attorney
Darden Graduate School of Business

-----Original Message-----
From: Brock Shinen [mailto:brock[_at_]frenzellaw.com] Sent: Friday, August 01, 2003 12:10 PM
To: CNI-COPYRIGHT -- Copyright & Intellectual Property Subject: [CNI-(C)] Re: Copyright and Distance Education

Assuming the policy forms a valid employment contract (which is what I was
thinking in the first place). I doubt that all university policies form valid employment contracts.

Brock

On 7/31/03 10:45 AM, "Fletcher, Eric" <FletcherE[_at_]darden.virginia.edu> wrote:

> Because contracts between the parties can supercede the default rules
of
> the Copyright Act.
>
> Most University's have written policies which address this issue, and
> faculty and staff sign agreements to this end. One plus would be
proof
> issues on when a work is created are eliminated. Also, given the dire
> financial situations many education institutions find themselves in
due
> to state budget woes, the revenue streams from the sale of educational
> materials is one opinion many schools are looking into.
>
> However, most progressive institutions also have financial and career
> incentives in place to ensure that the Professors are probably
rewarded
> for developing the materials.
>
> Eric L. Fletcher
> Attorney
> Darden Graduate School of Business

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Visit the CNI-COPYRIGHT e-mail list archive at <https://mail2.cni.org/Lists/CNI-COPYRIGHT/>. Received on Fri Aug 01 2003 - 22:19:53 GMT