Re: L.Rev (C) Release

On 11/11/99, Bruce Hayden <bhayden[_at_]ieee.org> wrote:
>
> But that is not how I read the Act. Rather, the employer is the
> "Author" and the faculty member is not. The faculty member (IMHO)
> has no legal initial claim to the copyright, even if the "license"
> is disclaimed. Rather, if the copyright by the employer is disclaimed,
> then I would think that it would go into the PD, and not to the
> faculty.
>
> Sure, Congress could have written that provision as in essence
> granting the employer a license - something on the order maybe
> of a shop right. But it didn't. Rather, it made the employer
> the statutory "Author" and the employee not.
>

....
>
> I think that a stretch, but clearly better than your first theory.
> But then you get into all of the notice provisions and the like.
> For example, will the Copyright Office accept a university policy for
> assignment purposes? Maybe, but I doubt it. So, what happens when
> the school goes off and assigns it elsewhere (exclusively) and that
> person properly records the assignment with the Copyright Office? Who
> is going to win? If the "Policy" is not registered as an assignment
> (which it invariably is not), then I would think that a court would
> have to bend the law to give the faculty the win.

     If Mr. Hayden is correct, it would seem that thousands of faculty members over the last century have been conveying copyright that they did not own to publishers. I would thus assume that the publishers really don't own the copyright they have been so seriously exploiting in the learned community, and that there is hope for a free electronic exchange of previously fixed expressed ideas which may allow big science to continue to flourish. IMHO "a consummation devoutly to be wished."

     Can this actually be true? Mr. Henderson won't like that very much.

BRB Bert R. Boyce, Professor & Dean
School of Library & Information Science
Louisiana State University
267 Coates Hall
Baton Rouge, LA 70803

     (225)388-3158
FAX: (225)388-4581
LSBOYC[_at_]lsu.edu Received on Mon Nov 15 1999 - 14:49:43 GMT