Faculty tackle copyright issues

Penn now faces the fundamental question of who owns what in academia as it redrafts its policy relating to copyrights and joins a growing number of universities confronting the controversy surrounding intellectual property. Intellectual property is the umbrella term for the ownership of ideas -- works of art, copyrightable books, patentable inventions or research. Currently, the Faculty Senate is looking at Penn's proposed policy on copyrights, drafted last spring -- which applies only to faculty, not students or staff. The proposal is a change from the present policy, where Penn has the copyright for everything except traditional academic work -- such as books and plays, where the copyright rests with the author. The policy was drafted by a 14-member task force that included faculty members. Many universities have been re-examining intellectual property, Stanford University Law Professor John Barton said, as technological change -- and the growth of the use of the Internet to disseminate information -- has undermined definitions of ownership. With Penn's proposal, the copyright would now, with key exceptions, rest with the faculty member. Under the proposed policy, exceptions will arise when grants and industry or government-sponsored research require that the University hold the copyright. Another significant exception arises when "the faculty create works that make substantial use of the services of University non-faculty employees or University resources," the proposal states. So if a professor writes an article for publication in a trade magazine only using library resources, his computer and his telephone, he hasn't entered the realm of "substantial resources" and therefore owns the copyright. But if he creates software to help professors grade chemistry labs using -- besides his own computer -- the resources of Penn's Information Systems and Computing staff members and substantial University financial backing, the University would own the copyright and share in the profits. "The software issue is becoming more and more important," noted Barton, an expert on intellectual property. He added that universities have been redrafting their policies to accommodate software -- which is largely hard to patent -- because institutions stand to profit from it. Yet another exception occurs in cases of works for hire, when faculty create works explicitly for the University. Also, audiovisual materials and recordings intended for Penn students are specifically included as materials to which the University would hold the copyright. But the policy would not tackle online note firms like Versity.com, which allow students to post online notes from a professor's lecture. "If you give a lecture, the lecture that you're giving verbally is non-copyrightable," Provost Robert Barchi explained. "The copyright exists immediately when you reduce something to concrete form," like when a professor types out a lecture before delivery. The University's examination of copyright policy is part of an overall trend for academic institutions to look at intellectual property in a world of growing technology and an expanding global community. Until recently, copyright policy was relevant mostly to the production of traditional academic materials -- textbooks, poetry and essays. Such materials typically weren't very profitable, according to intellectual property lawyer Jeff Burgan, and consequently didn't consume much of a typical university's time. "Because of the push for professors to publish, they're a little more liberal with copyright policy," he explained. "There's not a huge profit motive for the universities." In the past decades, however, things have changed. Professors can now put their courses online, or produce computer programs that provide students with basic coursework. Barton said that little in the area of educational Web sites or distance learning has been defined, which makes it difficult for universities to draft long-lasting copyright policies. "Things are going to get interesting," he added. "I don't think universities have quite come to grips with when distance learning works."

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