Re: copyright incidents on the nets

Mark Lemley writes (in response to this):
>
>>>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.
>>
>*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.

Not only is it copyrightable, it is copyrighted! The rights come into being automatically. The only option is whether the author or owner enforces the rights (not asserts them).

The rest of the world has gotten used to this language. I realise that the Americans are still coming to grips with their quite recent change in philosophy on copyright so the old phrases keep popping out.

Tim Arnold-Moore      | CITRI, RMIT         | Uni. of Melbourne Law School
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Phone: +61 3 282 2487 | Carlton 3053        |       simul iustus
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