Re: Univ. rights -Reply

Diane Istvan writes:
>
>In the absence of the U giving up the rights, you have a clear
>employee work for hire situation - an employee creating the work
>within her scope of employment - U ownes the copyright. Having
>said that - most universities are very liberal in relinquishing
>their rights to encourage the activity.
     

I am not sure that it is so clear that this is a work for hire situation. While the "publish or perish" syndrome still applies in many academic settings, it can be argued that copyright ownership in an academic's writings which are not strictly course related may reside with the academic, not the academy. The issue can be further confused if the published work is based on grant-supported research.

Due to the larger dollar volume involved, there has been much more discussion of patent ownership than copyright in the academic setting but that may change soon.

>The U probably has an existing policy on this which you should get.

In addition to the university policy, one should also check the fine print in grant support.

     Ed Barnas
     Director, Journals, Raven Press, New York
     ebarnas[_at_]ravenpress.com