Re: Question about student ownership/copyright

On Tue, 27 Apr 1999, Michael J. Vinson <mvinson[_at_]u.arizona.edu> wrote:
>
> 4. Employee-Initiated Works [?]
> e. student works (The student owns his/her own works, unless the
> student is a university employee and the work is part of his/her
> employment, or the student makes significant use of university
> resources, or the student's work is part of a Sponsor-supported
> project ...)

As Diane Cabel notes, "significant use of university resources" has a long history in its application to university grants and contracts. It is also becoming a popular touchstone in determining how much of a faculty member's intellectual productivity is claimed by the institution (either under work for hire or contracted compulsory licensing/assignment theories).

However, the interesting question raised here is whether one can apply it to ownership of STUDENT work where there is NOT any employment relationship or grant funding -- and, in fact, where the student is paying tuition for the privilige of access to these same resources. My own gut feeling on this is that a formal policy would not be enough for the university to win in court, and that at a minimum the criteria for "significant use" should be spelled out in the contract signed by the student when entering the university.

I think a more common approach in this area is to replace the "or"s with "and"s, thus making a much more limited university claim to ownership of the student's works.

Related question: how many universities (perhaps as a part of an initial contract with the student) make claims to more limited use of the student's IP for instructional purposes? Many common instructional practices, particularly if you believe in group or team-based learning pedagogies, seem likely to run afoul of a student's rights to IP or privacy. Even something so simple as an assignment where one student must grade or revise another's essay implicates copying, derivative works, and FERPA. A way out of this dilemma might be for the university to explicitly claim license to a limited bundle of IP rights to student work for purposes of that course's instruction.

JQ Johnson                      office: 115F Knight Library
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