Here is the key phrase from the district policy: "works created by
employees as part of their employment."
Not "similar to what they might do as part of their employment," but AS
***PART OF*** THEIR EMPLOYMENT. By rights, what is created as part of
employment -- on paid time, in the scope of employment -- should belong to
the employer, and under the section of copyright law quoted previously,
ordinarily does. That appears to be the presumption. What the employee does
**on her own time using her own resources** does not belong to the district.
In my (layman's) opinion, if the district were to allow employees to claim
copyright on works created in the course of their employment, on paid time,
using district resources, would be a gift of public property, and would
raise issues in the eyes of taxpayers (and muckracking journalists) if not
in the eyes of district lawyers.
Perhaps I was insufficiently clear before. But this is not the place for a
dissertation.
>Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2007 10:46:55 -0800
>From: Nancy Willard <nwillard@CSRIU.ORG>
>Subject: Re: QUESTION: Policies on Teachers'/Librarians' Intellectual Property
>
>Some stuff cut and answer below.
>
> > To seek to change the policy Ms. Speranza cited would be to seek to have
> > the district adopt a policy that is not in accordance with copyright law
> > and standard practice. I responded directly to Ms. Speranza, but this point
> > may be of general enough interest to be worth posting to the list.
> >
> >> Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2007 16:47:06 -0500
> >> From: Susan Speranza <castleriggpekes@GMAIL.COM>
> >> Subject: QUESTION: Policies on Teachers'/Librarians' Intellectual Property
>. . .
>
>Actually Ken, your statement is inaccurate. While there are legal standards
>under copyright law that address work-for-hire, a district can created any
>policy that it desires with respect to copyright law.
Maybe it can in theory, but they'll run into a buzz saw if they appear to
be giving away intellectual property **created at public expense.**
Intellectual property created entirely on the employee's own time and with
the employee's own resources is of course not the district's property. I do
not believe that the wording cited by the original poster crosses that line.
In a completely ***different*** setting (say, a pharmaceutical company or
industrial chemicals company), I can imagine that the employer might
include language in the employment contract that claims rights to
everything the employee does on personal **or** paid time, to protect trade
secrets and to eliminate incentives for employees to make personal,
for-profit use of knowledge gained through their work for their own private
ends.
All IMHO, of course.
Regards,
Ken
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kenneth W. Umbach, Ph.D.
Writing and research services
6966 Sunrise Blvd., #263, Citrus Heights, CA 95610 (mailing address)
916-733-2159 (this is voice mail, NOT a fax number)
www.umbachconsulting.com
ken@umbachconsulting.com
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