Modification of Faculty Handbook - Copyright, Intellectual Property RPC 05/06 - 7
Canary Sheet
At the Faculty Meeting on May 4, RPC will move that the faculty vote to recommend to the President that certain Category #2 content (namely, the sections describing copyright policy and intellectual property ownership) be incorporated into the Faculty Handbook.
Background:
Draft texts were circulated to the faculty on March 3, 2006. We received questions about the wording in the intellectual property ownership section, and strong objections to the length of the copyright policy section.
In response, two changes were made to the text of the intellectual property ownership section. For the sake of clarity, a parenthesis was added to the first sentence in the “ Definition of Extraordinary Resources” subsection so that it reads as follows: “‘Extraordinary resources’ may consist of released time from regularly assigned duties (but not a sabbatical or similar leave).” The problematic first sentence in the subsection entitled “License to College; Further Actions” was deleted, and “License to College” was dropped from the title. In addition, the 47 pages of copyright legalities were reclassified as Category #1 content (i.e., regulations that the college is required by law to follow), and the following new paragraph (Category #2 content) was written as a summary of the college's policy on copyright:
St. Olaf College respects the copyrights of third parties and requires all employees and students to comply with copyright law. All St. Olaf faculty are expected to follow and comply with applicable copyright laws at all times. General information about copyrights can be found elsewhere in this Handbook. This information includes guidelines with regard to the reproduction, display, performance, and distribution of works owned by others. St. Olaf 's practices are in harmony with the Copyright Act of 1976, including the provisions for the “fair use” doctrine and the generally accepted guidelines that define its scope.
The faculty are being asked to vote only on this single paragraph and on the revised text in the intellectual property ownership section. You may view both texts by clicking on these URL's:
http://www.stolaf.edu/offices/doc/facultyhandbook/Copyright.htm
http://www.stolaf.edu/offices/doc/facultyhandbook/2.1%20Intellectual%20Property.htm
Summary:
The section on copyright brings the college's policy into harmony with the Copyright Act of 1976 . In accordance with Section 101 of that Act, “works created by an employee within the scope of his or her employment” are owned by the employer. The section on intellectual property ownership makes explicit the college's understanding that this doctrine will not apply to works created by faculty unless “extraordinary resources of the college” are used in their creation. It then defines “extraordinary resources” and spells out the agreement between the faculty member and St. Olaf when the college retains ownership of the faculty member's works.
Rationale & Procedure:
Some Category #2 content in the Faculty Handbook is still in need of review. After the faculty has been asked to comment on selected sections, RPC takes the feedback it receives on the draft text and discusses it with the administration; the final version is put to a vote at the next faculty meeting. This vote is simply to recommend (or not recommend) to the President that the proposed policy be incorporated into the Handbook. The final decision rests with the President.
