Copyright proposal generates questions

If a Penn professor writes a textbook that sells a million copies, who should get the profits -- the University or the author? The University is looking to answer this and other questions surrounding professorial work as it redrafts its copyright policy for faculty. While most faculty endorsed the University's effort to create a policy, many said they were not sure what all the rules meant yet or how they would be implemented. "I'm not sure any of us know what the short-term or long-term potential of this is going to be," Anthropology Professor Alan Mann said. The proposal places the copyright with the faculty, with key exceptions. For example, if the University contributes a "substantial" amount of resources to the production of something, the copyright will rest with Penn. The policy is aimed at faculty members and will not address students or staff. It was authored by a 14-member committee last spring and is currently under review by the Faculty Senate. But many faculty members expressed confusion over how the policy would be implemented, if approved, and several weren't aware of the proposal's contents. Some, for instance, said they worried about the ambiguity of the term "substantial." "That's going to be problematic because the resource is the intellectual activity, and it's very hard to do accounting of who owns the resources in someone's intellectual thinking," Director of the Biotechnology program Scott Diamond said. And Mann added that how the University interprets the term might impact a professor's willingness to publish or produce. "I think these very nebulous terms have to be defined in the future... and that will impact your contribution," he explained. Mann teaches several classes online through PennAdvance, a College of General Studies program. He has voiceovers on the course Web site, which could become Penn supervised under the policy, meaning that the school can control class audiovisual materials. "I would assume that would come under this particular heading, and I would not be pleased with that," he explained. Legally, however, Law School Professor Polk Wagner, an intellectual property expert, said the word substantial won't really be a problem, adding "that's a perfectly appropriate term to use." Overall, many professors endorsed the University's efforts to redraft their copyright policy. "My take is that we should be very close to what I consider to be a good solution to this long-standing, open issue," Faculty Senate Chair and Communications Professor Larry Gross said. Gross added that the Senate committee on Faculty will discuss the proposal together next Tuesday, and that he hoped to put the proposal before the entire Senate at their next meeting in November. "We're just about where we need to be," he said. But the success of the proposal won't really be clear until it gets implemented, which is contingent on the Faculty Senate's approval. "It's sometimes overwhelmingly clear on a case-by-case basis," Diamond said, adding that it was hard to write or evaluate such a broad-based policy. The proposal was, in part, prompted by the influence of growing technology and distance education on academia. Diamond, for example, said that computer programs can be drafted to help students in classes or can be used to develop different drugs -- thereby making them lucrative both for the faculty member and the University. But according to several professors, their departments haven't yet had to deal with the impact of online classes or software. And Louis Berneman, the managing director of Penn's Center for Technology Transfer, said that professors who wanted to take advantage of new media didn't usually do so without outside help, thereby forfeiting their chance at the copyright. "Many of them are savvy enough to realize they need assistance," he said. But the core of the policy recognizes the role of faculty, generally giving them the copyright. Ideally, many professors said, they should own the copyright to work they produce. "The University expects a faculty member to be doing research, producing scholarly publications," said Paul Langacker, chair of the Physics and Astronomy Department. "That's a part of the job. The University, for that, should not expect to receive financial rewards or returns."

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