Re: copyright incidents on the nets

>>Some people have asserted that the students papers are not
>>"intellectual property," raising some interesting questions about what
>>they are asking their students to produce.
>
>Writing textbook publishers seem to think that student writing
>can be intellectual property. Several I know about require that
>authors get permission to use excerpts from students' class
>assignments.

*Of course* student writing is copyrightable. A 4-year-old's fingerpainting is copyrightable. Faculty members may not consider a student paper significant, but that doesn't give them the right under the law to post it freely on the nets.

Mark Lemley
Assistant Professor
University of Texas School of Law
mlemley[_at_]mail.law.utexas.edu Received on Thu Dec 15 1994 - 22:38:44 GMT