Re: Dissertations & Theses

On 5/15/97, Charles E. Keller <keller[_at_]ra.msstate.edu> wrote:
>
> I wrote (in part) in regard to the Petr Taborksy (chain gang IP) case:
> > >
> > > .... All this comes about (i think) because of a lack of
> > > understanding by students that ALL IP generated on a college campus
> > > no matter how much personal TIME and personal EQUIPMENT you use,
> > > universities OWN the IP rights!
>
> On Wed, 19 Feb 1997, Jessica Litman <litman[_at_]mindspring.com> wrote:
> >
> > At least in the United States, this is not the law....
>
> At the time of my posting I had been referring to typical?? university
> policy, not the law. However, it has just come to my attention that yet
> another graduate student is in jail in Florida. I don't know his name
> or many details. Apparently he carefully documented all of the work he
> did in writing a computer program on his own time and his own equipment.
> Yet he is in jail. I don't know if the issue is copyright or patent.

You don't know his name, or whether he claims a patent or copyright, or whether he was employed by the university, or even what he's in jail for. But you know that "he carefully documented all of the work he did in writing a computer program on his own time and his own equipment." Gee, I guess we all just gotta agree that sending graduate students to jail when they have careful documentation is not a good thing.

> Does Florida have some special IP laws that override U.S. federal laws?

Florida, alone among the 50 states, has criminalized the possession of careful documentation. But Prof. Burk has taken the case, and has moved to dismiss the charges on the ground that the Internal Revenue Code, which requires careful documentation, preempts the Florida law.

John Noble
<jnoble[_at_]dgs.dgsys.com> Received on Fri May 16 1997 - 19:25:37 GMT