There is some dicta (by judges who used to be law professors) adressing the issue. These opinions by Posner and Easterbrook indicate that professors may indeed own the initial copyrights in their own scholarship. Sometimes this is considered a "teacher exception" to usual 'work for hire' approaches.
See Weinstein v. University of Illinois, 811 F 2d 1091 (7th Cir 1987) and Hays v. Sony Corp of America, 847 F 2d 412 (7th Cir 1988). The latter suggests, among other things, that profs may not be producing their scholarship "for" the institution; see sec 201(b). So I think it is premature to conclude that universities own the initial copyrights in our work.
The relevant cases & articles are well summarized in the Latman/Gorman & Ginsburg casebook, COPYRIGHT FOR THE NINETIES, umpteenth edition.
Wendy J. Gordon | Professor of Law | Internet: wgordon[_at_]bu.edu Boston University Law School | Phone: 617-353-4420 765 Commonwealth Avenue | Fax: 617-353-3077 Boston, MA 02215 | -----------------------------------------------------------------
On Tue, 14 Feb 1995, Diane M. Istvan wrote:
>
> 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. The U probably has an
> existing policy on this which you should get.
>
> Diane Istvan
> Foster Pepper & Shefelman
> Seattle, Washington
> <istvd[_at_]foster.com>
Received on Tue Feb 14 1995 - 20:03:27 GMT
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