[Pols-l] Copy Right and Online Courses

[Kennedy, John James]

Hello,

I hope you are well. Thanks to everyone for attending the POLS Picnic. The food was great, and the picnic was a success.

At the Friday faculty meeting, I thought we had a good discussion and questions regarding copyrights and online courses.  Here is a follow up e-mail. In short, faculty do not completely own their courses and course material.  I checked the policy and according to the KU Intellectual Property Policy (https://policy.ku.edu/chancellor/intellectual-property#IPScholarly) faculty courses and lectures are subject to "Work Made for Hire" (see full definition below).  This means the university has the rights to use all courses (in-person and online). I confirmed with the College.

Therefore, if a faculty member develops a course (online or in-person), the “ownership” is shared. If the faculty member leaves KU, then KU retains the right to use the course with a different instructor and has the right to update/tweak/modify the content. Likewise, the faculty member can take the course with them when they leave. A faculty member can develop a syllabus for a course, however, if they leave KU, the course continues to exist. The faculty member can take their syllabus with them to use at another institution. We agree to the "Works Made for Hire" when we sign or agree to the salary letter from the Chancellor.

I hope this is helpful regarding the copyright question.

I will send another follow up e-mail regarding CODL questions and designing online courses.

Take Care,
John


Work Made for Hire shall be guided by the AAUP 1999 Statement on Copyright (AAUP Policy Documents & Reports, Tenth Edition, p.215, lines 15-21), and shall mean works created as a specific requirement of employment or as an assigned institutional duty that may, for example, be included in a written job description or an employment agreement, may be fairly deemed works made for hire.



17 USC § 201(b)

(b) Works Made for Hire.—

In the case of a work made for hire, the employer or other person for whom the work was prepared is considered the author for purposes of this title, and, unless the parties have expressly agreed otherwise in a written instrument signed by them, owns all of the rights comprised in the copyright




John James Kennedy, Professor
Chair of the Political Science Department
University of Kansas
Office: Blake Hall, Room 521
Phone: 785-864-9025
E-mail: kennedy1 at ku.edu
Webpage: https://www.johnjameskennedy.com
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