"Jerrold Zar" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message [EMAIL PROTECTED]">news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]... > The ownership of intellectual property has long been an issue in higher > education. Formerly a university intellectual-property officer, I have > been an interested observer and participant of these discussions for > many years. > > Traditionally, universities have not claimed ownership of published > material, such as books or journal articles. Actually, the authors > typically don't have ownership rights, either; the publishers do. > Universities do not generally try to grab the authors' royalties, but an > exception is where the publication is what is termed a "work for hire." > A work for hire is a situation where someone is paid by the university > spherically to write something (e.g., an instructor is given salary > specifically to write a laboratory manual, or a staff member is paid > specifically to write a computer-user's manual); this is NOT the > situation where a faculty member writes a book --even on university > time--as part of his/her teaching/research duties. > > With regard to inventions, universities vary greatly in how much > ownership they claim. Some insist that anything invented by a > university employee belongs to the university, which then has patent > rights and the rights to at least some of the royalties resulting > therefrom. Others claim ownership only if the invention was made using > university resources. And others do not automatically claim ownership > even if university resources were used. > > The proliferation of computer software as creative output of university > employees has opened a new chapter in intellectual-property > considerations, with universities' having a variety of policies, ranging > among those indicated above for copyright and for patents. In many > cases, the financial consequences are not great, but in other cases they > can be very, very significant. > > Jerrold H. Zar, Ph.D. > Department of Biological Sciences > Northern Illinois University > DeKalb IL 60115 > ========================================= This also presents a real problem for those of us evaluating the "correctness" of software. In all cases I have encountered, the source will not provide the code, so I am very limited in evaluating the ability of the package to do what is claimed.
The problem is as Knuth says, is that you have to look at the algorithms, because there is no way to effectively evaluate the numerical output. There are theoretical tests that can only be done by investigating the algorithm. There is no way to run through all possible input parameters and values in finite time. There is a lot of software put out by Universities that is incomplete, buggy and gives bad results under some conditions. Much of it is for student use, but the "professors" very actively promote it over the Internet. When I down load the files, the files are either password blocked, unreadable or are compiled versions where the higher order languages are absent. For example, when some "known expert" says he has the "correct random number generator" I have to conclude that it is a pack of misinformation, because he won't give any information on the algorithms. When the "program" is published in the open literature, the theoretical and mathematical aspects are given, forced by "Peer Review". Most of the software promoted by Universities is copyrighted and does not appear in the open literature. > >>> "Arthur J. Kendall" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 01/15/03 12:56PM >>> > Another perspective on the ethics is that of intellectual property > belonging to the prof as a professional. A teacher/instructor/prof is > > not an employee the same way a factory worker is. If there is a reason > > that money should not go to the prof shouldn't it just as well go to a > > charity. Isn't this part of the same problem as intellectual property > > going to any employer? In recent years increasingly many companies and > > universities grab onto the ideas of professionals and treat then as > corporate property. > > > Art > =================== > . > . > ================================================================= > Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the > problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: > . http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . > ================================================================= . . ================================================================= Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: . http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . =================================================================
