Re: INFO/NYT: Universities Note and Protest Student Publication of Class Notes

REGARDING A NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE WITH LINK AND EXCERPT BELOW:
>
> Several companies have hired students to publish class notes on
> the web on a free website that permits registered users of the websites
> to have access to these notes free of charge. Universities at which
> this practice is occuring have sent a sharp protest and warning to the
> companies engaged in this practice. The warnings state that the
> professors' copyright and intellectual property rights infringement is
> one violation of this practice of publication of class notes. Some of
> the student note takers are being warned as well of disciplinary action
> by their schools as well.
>
> Sincerely,
> David Dillard
> Temple University
> (215) 204-4584
> jwne[_at_]astro.temple.edu
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Source: New York Times (NYT)
> Author: CARL S. KAPLAN
> Title: Universities Warn Sites Posting Class Notes
> Source Date: October 22, 1999
> Resource Type: News Article
> Description/Keywords: College Students, Classroom Notes, Commercial
> Website, Publication, Colleges and Universities, Warning, Copyright
> Infringement
> URL: Listed Below Article Summary
>
> By CARL S. KAPLAN
>
> Universities Warn Sites Posting Class Notes some university
> professors and administrators have watched with alarm over the past
> year or so as Internet ventures have hired students on campuses across
> the country to take class notes and post them on free Web sites.
>
> Now the simmering controversy may reach a boil. In the last
> two weeks at least two universities have sent warning letters to
> representatives of the online companies, claiming that note-takers
> are violating campus policy and infringing upon the intellectual
> property rights of the faculty.
>
> Looming behind the dispute is a puzzling legal question: Is the
> commercial distribution of a student's class notes a violation of the
> professor's copyright?

<snip>

The two universities are UCLA and UC Berkeley. UC Davis is seriously considering taking the same steps, according to our campus paper, and local newspapers. We do have a sanctioned note-taking service, Classical Notes, on campus, run by the student government (ASUCD). The articles published in our papers are noting specifically that the Classical Notes notetakers have been approved by, and have their notes cleared by, the instructors for the classes. Having been one of them myself once upon an undergraduate time, I can vouch for that.

Another primary factor that has been raised here, and I'm sure on other campuses, is that the notetakers hired by these on-line companies may not have the requisite skills for conveying the correct information to those using the online services. A few failed grades here and there, and the word will be passed quickly among students to take care in using the services, and to take their own notes - i.e., GO TO CLASS!

Barb

Barbara Ruhmann
Text Buyer
UCD Bookstore
University of California
2828 Cowell Blvd.
Davis, CA 95616
Phone 530-752-5538
Fax 530-752-4791
e-mail brruhmann[_at_]ucdavis.edu
http://www-bookstore.ucdavis.edu/ Received on Tue Oct 26 1999 - 15:37:18 GMT