[Faculty] Legal information on class notes and copyright

[Winzerling, Joy J - (jwinzerl)]

Dear Faculty Member,

Recently a faculty member found the entire set of notes from her course as well as exams had been sold to a website and could be accessed for a fee.  The issue with students selling notes of classroom lectures and other materials to websites such as Coursehero (www.coursehero.com<http://www.coursehero.com>) and Chegg (www.chegg.com<http://www.chegg.com>) is not new.  As you can see if you peruse these sites and search for the University of Arizona, they already contain thousands of materials, from professors and classes in colleges and departments all across campus.  Below is a brief explanation of the issue, as well as some suggested practices to deal with it.  Please use this to develop your own strategy for addressing this issue.

To clarify what is covered under copyright: Under federal copyright law, your scholarly materials are, to the extent they are your original works and are fixed in a tangible medium, copyrightable.  Under the Arizona Board of Regents and University of Arizona Intellectual Property Policies, ABOR and UA do not assert copyright ownership in these materials unless exceptional circumstances exist; thus, faculty retain copyright ownership of course notes and other original material that they create for use in the classroom.  What this means is that if a student sells this material, or distributes it to third parties without the faculty member's permission, the student has improperly infringed on that faculty member's copyrighted work.  Note that there is a distinction between course materials created by the faculty (syllabi, presentations, handouts, etc.) and materials that are created by students (e.g., class notes) - generally, only the former is a copyright infringement issue unless the student's class notes are verbatim expressions of faculty-created course materials.

Copyright protection applies to course materials when they are (a) original (developed by faculty, not any third party); and (b) fixed in a tangible medium (oral presentations are not copyrightable unless recorded, and then the recording can be copyrighted).  There is no registration, marking or other similar prerequisite required for copyright protection  - the (c) symbol (usually accompanied by the name and year the work was first published) puts the viewer on notice of copyright protection, and has certain advantages in the context of a copyright lawsuit, but is not actually required. This also means that if a faculty member wants to pursue legal means to address copyright infringement, the legal costs would accrue to the faculty member.

So, what can a faculty member do if he or she does not want students distributing course materials outside the classroom or uploading them to commercial websites?  Below are some more practical recommendations:


  *   Include a copyright statement in your syllabus:  You may want to consider including a statement in your course syllabus or online course policies that states: (1) you hold the copyright in your lectures and course materials, (2) your copyright includes student notes or summaries that reproduce your lectures or materials, (3) these materials are made available only for personal use by students, and (4) students may not distribute or reproduce the materials for commercial purposes without your express written consent.  (This would not prevent students from sharing notes on an individual basis for personal use, and you may want to include a statement to that effect.)  Finally, you can advise students that violation of your copyright may result in course sanctions and violate the Code of Academic Integrity.


  *   Include a copyright notice on your materials:  You can further protect your copyright interest by printing the word "copyright "on your materials or displaying the symbol (c) in a prominent place, together with your name and the year this work was first published or distributed.  Although, as stated previously, this is not necessary in order to obtain or maintain copyright protection, it is helpful to put your students on notice that you are asserting copyright in these materials.  Remember that it is not appropriate to include your copyright notice on any third party materials (and, in fact, you should make sure you have appropriate permissions in such third party materials).


  *   Send a copyright infringement notice to a companies that distribute your course materials:  Because you own the copyright in your original lectures and course materials once, it is up to you to notify infringers of your ownership rights and take remedial measures.  The University cannot do so on your behalf.  Many of the established commercial note-taking services post instructions on their websites so that you can notify them of copyright violations and demand that they "take down" offending materials (see e.g., http://www.chegg.com/a/p/copyright/chipro-form.pdf) and (https://www.coursehero.com/copyright.php ).  For your convenience, I have attached a sample "cease and desist" letter that you may send to a person or entity who may be infringing on your copyrighted materials.


  *   If you can identify the student, report a Code violation:  If you can identify a particular student who has violated your copyright by selling your course materials, consider reporting the student for policy violations.  Please contact your Dean or Department Head, the Office of the General Counsel, and/or the Dean of Students for more information.

I hope this at least provides you with an understanding of this area of concern and some tools to help you address it.  Thank you for all that you bring to our students every day and your dedication to the instruction of our students.

Best Regards,
Joy




Joy Winzerling, Ph.D.,R.D.
Bart Cardon Associate Dean for Career and Academic Services
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Forbes 201
1140 E. South Campus Drive
P.O. Box 210036
Tucson, AZ 85721-0036
Tel: (520) 621-3612
Fax: (520) 621-8662
jwinzerl at ag.arizona.edu<mailto:jwinzerl at ag.arizona.edu>


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