Maryland Lawmaker Introduces Bill To Bar Schools From Claiming Copyright On Student & Faculty Work
from the one-way-to-go-about-things dept
We recently wrote about how the school district in Prince George County, Maryland, was looking at adopting a policy whereby the school would claim all copyrights on created works by students and teachers. For obvious reasons, this got many people upset and, in response, it appears that a Maryland politician has tried to block the move. Dave Blevins alerts us to the news that Maryland state House Minority Leader Anthony J. O'Donnell introduced a bill that bars schools from claiming the copyright on students' work. The bill does not however bar them requiring staff to assign copyrights, which is unfortunate. It's good to see more widespread recognition of how copyright is abused, but trying to fix it bit by bit rather than looking at the overall system seems like a mistake.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: copyright, maryland, schoolwork
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
And sometimes the patches causes much more damage than if it wasn't done at all.
It gets me wondering. Suppose they decide to scrap copyright and start over in the future. What will happen with all those bills being introduced to fix what copyright law fucked up?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
A pair of pants
At some point, you have to realize that the pants need to be tossed out and replaced.
We are at that point now.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: A pair of pants
I look at it kind of like computer code. You start off making a program and as you find bugs you patch them and ratchet up the point numbers. After a while though you have to break down and work on V.2 where you rewrite all your code and clean it up.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: A pair of pants
Bad legislation is like a computer virus, it's much easier to detect and erase it before it is executed than after.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: A pair of pants
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: A pair of pants
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: A pair of pants
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: A pair of pants
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Well done
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Well done
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Well done
http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/mythbusters/videos/polishing-a-turd-minimyth.htm
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Well done
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
What this is is a requirement that all copyrights the staff would otherwise have is assigned to the school. it's along the same lines as recording contracts requiring a transfer of copyrights.
Incidentally, the curricula and lesson plans are school copyright anyway, since they are created in the course of employment, which is what I think you were thinking of.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Work for hire
I am against organizations trying to claim ownership of ALL works by an employee when the work is not part of the employer's product line or business.
In an educational setting, this is especially a cause for concern, as traditionally, both educators and students have owned work that they created during the educational process. At a university level, professors are expected to publish and continue their professional development... trying to claim ownership of those works doesn't exactly make someone want to create new works that they won't own.
IMO, a work for hire should always be a specific, commissioned work. For example, "We will pay you to write us a school anthem." Schools should never be allowed to say "we own everything you create." This should include a teacher's individualized lesson plans.
Now the exception should be for specific works created for the school. For example, if a teacher helps develop or revise the syllabus that will be used by all of the teachers for a specific class, that would be owned by the school. If a student creates a module for the school web site, then the school should own that work.
But when an art professor paints a portrait of his wife for her birthday, a computer teacher writes a video game to sell on iTunes, or a music teacher composes a song to play at the local coffee shop, those are individual works and not something created to help the school do its business. I can't see any reasonable merit to the school owning those works.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
They can't fix it at a state level in any meaningful way, this needs action at the federal level.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Bad School Board
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Bad School Board
Where your contractual argument goes off the rails is a lack of understanding of MD law regarding teachers. The actual Teacher's Contract that the teacher signs is written by the State Bd of Ed, not the local board. There is a negotiated agreement between the local boards and the local union, but that applies to, and is only enforceable by, the local union. The teacher is a third party beneficiary, and not an actual party to the contract (has your head exploded yet?). It is a byzantine system, and while there could be a provision in there in which the Board would agree to not take the copyright, I have seen most of these agreements, and they don't touch upon copyright at all.
That being said, if the work is created outside of work, or would not be something the teacher would normally be expected to create to do the job, then it will most likely not be a work for hire, policy or no policy.
Lastly, the union could NEVER get the copyright, nor are they interested in it. The unions do not employ the teacher and therefore can't get the copyright.
Frankly, I think it is a butt stupid idea on the Board's part, but. This sort of policy will halt the type of innovation that PG is thinking it will capture. I am pretty sure the Board won't get this ( http://9to5forums.com/discussion/6036/quick-key-grading-app-uses-iphones-camera-to-skip-the-scantron ) out of PG county teachers, with the climate and culture therein. I guarantee the Board won't if it implements its policy.
While I agree, it is an attempted money grab by the Board, it is self-defeating since it prevents there from being any "money" to grab. It is like taxing at 100%. . . no one is going to try to earn any income since it is all taken. Let's keep the focus on the bad actor here, and not try to bring in non-actors such as the union, into the argument.
Bryan
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
How do you unlearn what you've learned?
Ditto programming. Yeah, you can't take code and use it somewhere else line by line. But once you figure out how to overcome a specific coding hurdle, you may well face that same hurdle at another employer. You're supposed to...what? Pretend you never solved it for the first guy? Not possible, so you reuse what you've learned, if not specific lines of code. There's not a programmer out there who doesn't do this.
-As for owning the copyright to students' work, my now 10-yr old figured that out a year ago: http://iptrolltracker2.wordpress.com/2013/02/28/comic-con-no-crazy-costumes-required/
Just sayin'
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
How do kids expect to profit intellectually if the school itself claims by eternal copyright their own essays and artwork? It is the whole process of life in that we use what we learn! If you fill up my head with knowledge and then tell me I cant use it without paying individual licensing fees for every use is a scheme that Ponzi would love. If I read one of my old school essays to my kids do they have to pay if they use ideas or quotes off of it also? (Don't laugh, you guys know I write a lot it's a very real scenario.)
The teacher created coursework and curricula are a different matter although one would hope that a teacher could share that with other teachers in other schools. Most teacher contracts are not spcific in that area. Much coursework is based on collaborations from other teachers at seminars and such or even from web sites that teachers share their experience and lesson plans so who really owns it is a complex argument.
Tomxp411 said “Schools should never be allowed to say "we own everything you create." “ (and elaborates well) If the school copyrighted everything by default it just sounds like a land grab 'just because we can' thing. The current, effectively, eternal copyright system completely removes from circulation a copyrighted work forever because it wont be available (to you) until long after you die. If the term were much shorter it would not be as much of a concern and you would be able to pick up where you left off when the term expired.
It has been one of my themes that copyright should be limited to some time span of much less that the average lifespan of the audience. 30 years might be to much. It is important that we be able to use the stories our parents taught us (our culture) or read in school because... thats all we know!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]