Re: [LM_NET] QUESTION: Policies on Teachers'/Librarians' Intellectual Property

[Nancy Willard <nwillard@CSRIU.ORG>]

My apologies to Ken.

By the time I saw this stream of messages, the actual policy had been
deleted from the message

> *Respect the intellectual property of its administrators, students, and
> teaching staff and to prevent the unauthorized reproduction or transmittal
> of their intellectual property without their permission **except that works
> created by employees as part of their employment shall be considered works
> for hire and the property of BFUHS unless an alternative agreement has been
> made between the BFUHS Board and the employee. * The policy is in accord with
what he said and I said.

If a teacher is specifically contracted to create curriculum - say a group
of teachers is contracted to create some new science learning activities for
the district - then the district does indeed own the copyright on this work
as a work-for-hire.

But teachers are generally hired to teach - not to create curriculum. So any
curriculum or other resources created as a side activity should not fall
under this policy. 

If someone within the district is interpreting this policy as meaning
anything a teacher creates that has to do with education is owned by the
district simply because they happen to be teachers, that is not correct and
not in accord with their own policy.

Nancy

-- 
Nancy Willard, M.S., J.D.
Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use
http://csriu.org
http://cyberbully.org
http://cyber-safe-kids.com
nwillard@csriu.org

Cyberbullying and Cyberthreats: Responding to the Challenge of Online Social
Aggression, Threats, and Distress (Research Press)

Cyber-Safe Kids, Cyber-Savvy Teens: Helping Young People Learn to Use the
Internet Safely and Responsibly (Jossey-Bass)

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