Content-Type: Text Content-Length: 1480 Jerry Henderson asks about a policy concerning ownership of works produced for class. Does anyone else feel about this as I do? In short, the idea that a university can lay claim to ownership of a work produced for class stinks. Can a school claim that a thesis written for a requirement is theirs, not the student's? Does the school own a copyright on the work, paper, film, whatever or does the school have a basis for claiming a copyright? Hardly. The student is the artist, not the school. The student produces the work, not the school. A student pays money to take the course, pay for advice and her tuition helps buy classroom equipment, whether cameras, computers, or overhead projectors. If the school claims to be a "producer" because it allows the use of film or video equipment, can a rental company also claim to be a producer because it rents Arris to users? Not in your dreams. Now if the school would like to pay someone to produce a film for them, and a contract so stipulates, it's a different matter. However, any student who signs away the right to her work simply because it's done for a class project should look at going to another school where intellectual property is deemed sacred. Can you imagine a professor at this same school giving up rights to scholarship because a book or script was partially typed on a university computer in the professor's office? Fat chance. Let's not apply double standards to students. Content-Type: Text Content-Name: c:\roger Content-Length: 598 ************************************************************************* * Roger Bullis Internet: [log in to unmask] * * * * Division of Communication * * University of Wisconsin "Never stand under a tall dog" * * Stevens Point, WI 54481 * * * *************************************************************************