Having just served on our campus's Intellectual Property Policy Workgroup, I had to educate myself on these issues directly. Claudia Stanny brought up a search on Google and found that her PPT was coopted by a graduate student with no attribution to her. Here's where it gets messy.
First is the issue of copyright, which has to do with ownership and origination of the ideas. In the past (and when webpages were in their inception), we all thought that if you put a "c" surrounded by a circle it would assert your ownership of the content. Or, some even advised mailing yourself a document via certified mail which would authenticate ownership. Neither of these is necessary. Copyright resides with the originator of the idea. If you collaborate with someone else, then it's gets sticky if there's a dispute over ownership or origination of the ideas. Copyright can be split and could entitle another to reproduce or create derivative works. However, for most academics, their is a section of the federal copyright law commonly known as "fair use." Fair use generally means that if the usage of the work is for educational purposes then usage is acceptable. For those who adhere to conditions under the TEACH act, this can extend to digital media as well. So, that means that any course material you have unsecured on the Web is fair game for others to use, if acceptable under the fair use condition. Under Intellectual Property, the issue really becomes over profits made from creations. If said graduate student is then publishing a subscriber-paid website using Claudia's PPT, Claudia might want to assert IP rights and get a share of the profits. Sadly, most of the Intellectual Property we create has little commercial value. At the same, some universities require faculty to share Intellectual Property rights and/or patents with the university itself. As an undergrad, I worked at the child care center on campus. I had to sign a legal document that if I attained a patent while working there, I had to sign over rights to the university. So, Claudia's case, can the graduate student use the PPT? Yes, probably. Should he attribute Claudia? Yes. Claudia should send an email and just let him know that you would like to be attibuted or else you will have to assert your copyright as originating author (the latter half has little standing but might scare him a bit?!?) My 2 cents, Rob Rob Weisskirch, MSW, Ph.D. Chair, Liberal Studies Department Assistant Professor of Human Development Department of Liberal Studies, Building 82C 100 Campus Center California State University, Monterey Bay Seaside, CA 93955-8001 (831) 582-5079 [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- To make changes to your subscription go to: http://acsun.frostburg.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=tips&text_mode=0&lang=english
