Re: copyright in student work

Apropos of this thread, there was an article in the Boston Globe today about a publisher's difficulties with the Massachusetts Department of Corrections over a book by a prison inmate. Having originally approved the project, the DOC has interposed numerous bureaucratic obstacles to having it published, including a claim that copyright in the book belongs to the state because it was written by an inmate.

I don't for a moment think that the state has a ghost of a claim, but it is interesting that the mere assertion of copyright based on physical custody over the author (who's to say which, school or prison, is the less voluntary?) is used to ratchet the stakes in a bureaucratic negotiation process.

• Vance R. Koven phone: 617-482-3852 *
• attorney at law fax: 617-482-4972 *
• 20 Park Plaza, Ste. 520 net: vrkoven[_at_]world.std.com *
• Boston, MA 02116-4303 *

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