Prince George’s County Board of Education to copyright work

[Elley Mae]

A proposal by the Prince George’s County Board of Education to copyright work created by staff and students for school could mean that a picture drawn by a first-grader, a lesson plan developed by a teacher or an app created by a teen would belong to the school system, not the individual.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/local...592dea-6b08-11e2-ada3-d86a4806d5ee_story.html

 

[belimom]

A proposal by the Prince George’s County Board of Education to copyright work created by staff and students for school could mean that a picture drawn by a first-grader, a lesson plan developed by a teacher or an app created by a teen would belong to the school system, not the individual.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local...592dea-6b08-11e2-ada3-d86a4806d5ee_story.html

Wow. I don't think it will be implemented. It's going a bit too far, and I think parents will be outraged. From that link:

“There is something inherently wrong with that,” David Cahn, an education activist who regularly attends county school board meetings, said before the board’s vote to consider the policy. “There are better ways to do this than to take away a person’s rights.”....

...David Rein, a lawyer and adjunct law professor who teaches intellectual property at the University of Missouri in Kansas City, said he had never heard of a local school board enacting a policy allowing it to hold the copyright for a student’s work.

 

[Donjeta]

“Works created by employees and/or students specifically for use by the Prince George’s County Public Schools or a specific school or department within PGCPS, are properties of the Board of Education even if created on the employee’s or student’s time and with the use of their materials,” the policy reads. “Further, works created during school/work hours, with the use of school system materials, and within the scope of an employee’s position or student’s classroom work assignment(s) are the properties of the Board of Education.”

So if someone writes a brilliant school play at home, with their own computer, and it gets performed at the school they can't publish because it became the school's property?

 

[Pandora]

I worked briefly as a substitute in a school district with a policy very similar to this one. They actually claimed anything I brought in the building with me--even if the materials were developed by me at home or at another school! It made me limit what I was willing to use.

My current district does not have the policy, but I sense it is coming. Many schools are developing their own "cyber-schools" to keep money in the district (including mine). The teachers involved with those cyber-schools do not maintain ownership of their intellectual property. It belongs to the district.

All that said, I'm being moved around to various grade levels and content areas so that I'll develop curriculum for those classes. I enjoy the challenge, but it is annoying that I develop the curriculum, test it, make sure it works, then I get moved on to another area, while someone else uses everything I've developed. (I DO have to leave it behind and maintain an "open door" policy for those following in my footsteps, so I guess the district is getting what it wants without having a written policy.)

 

[Elphaba]

I'm gobsmacked... of all things PG County needs to address in their school system, THIS is it? *SMH* No wonder that school district has a horrible reputation... their priorities are screwed up.

 

[Nova]

Universities generally have “sharing agreements” for work created by professors and college students, Rein said. Under those agreements, a university, professor and student typically would benefit from a project, he said.

I can see where a school might have an argument regarding the work of its paid employees; copyright law has a specific concept of "works for hire" that covers work done while on the payroll of an employer. (This isn't to say I like the idea of taking the work of teachers, just that I understand the legal justification.)

But students? (Unless they are paid research assistants.)

I'm not a lawyer but I don't think our system of torts looks too kindly on claiming ownership of works created by people you haven't paid. (Perhaps schools will do as colleges do with football players and claim students are "paid" with the education they receive.)

For the record, I've attended four universities (several degrees) and taught at three. None of them attempted to assert ownership of any of my copyrights for plays, lyrics or scholarly articles.

(In contrast, program articles and press releases I wrote for a professional theater while drawing a salary there are owned by the theater and still used by it. And rightfully so. Those were "works for hire".)

 

[Elley Mae]

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...work-prompts-backlash-legal/ ?test=latestnews

The draft policy prompted a backlash from teachers and education activists -- causing the board to put the policy on hold pending a more thorough legal review.

Townsend tells FoxNews.com that while the county has the right under the Work for Hire provision to police what teachers do, trying to stake a claim in what students create won't fly.

"The students are mostly under the age of 18 and federal law protects their rights," he said. Townsend added that unless a parent or guardian signs off on it, what a student creates belongs to the student and not the school.

 

[txsvicki]

So, technically, a parent wouldn't be able to post their child's drawing or poem on facebook for friends to see, or even put it on their fridge? Way to motivate learning and creating! The way I read it would even include work done at home and not necessarily homework. Just because the kid is a student ANY work they do anywhere belongs to the school system?

 

[Laughing]

Folks, if your local school district uses My Big Campus, these rights are already long gone.

Anything posted on My Big Campus becomes the property of My Big Campus. Not the author, not the school district, not the teacher, not the student but My Big Campus.

Teachers, beware, you can't assemble those great lesson plans & publish a book.

Students, beware, you can't expand your science project into an undergraduate project.

Districts, beware, communication between students & teachers is not confidential.

I am not currently aware of any problems this has caused, but we all know that day is coming.