Re: faculty work-for-hire sites?

Harold Federow <hfederow[_at_]u.washington.edu> wrote:
>
> The archives for this list have some of our discussions on this topic
> over the past couple of years. As i remember the general consensus,
> most likely faculty course materials and articles and books are likely
> works for hire, since that is what faculty are hired to do. HOWEVER,
> and this is important, this can be and often is modified by the
> universities.

Thanks to all for the list of suggestions and resources. What is interesting is that apparently there are no web sites or web resources related to the faculty work-for-hire issue, at least not that I've been able to find. (Dan Burk has an article entitled "Ownership of Electronic Course Materials in Higher Education," see:

   http://www.cause.org/information-resources/ir-library/html/cem9734.html ).

I was part of that original discussion of faculty work-for-hire, and there was by no means a consensus on the list. Several pointed out the existence of an "academic exception" in rulings based on the 1909 copyright act. And it's not clear if the 1976 act has eroded this academic exception. Clearly universities do make claims on faculty patents, but historically they have not typically questioned the faculty member's claims to copyright.

Two developments are changing the nature of business-as-usual. First is the status of multimedia products; universities do seem to be more interested in making copyright claims on that type of faculty work. Second, and related, is the urge to restructure the university under the so-called corporate model, which would re-position faculty more as employees answerable to management (administration) and to customers (students) and less as co-trustees in the governance of the institution.

Jim Porter

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