Distance Education: Intellectual Property UPPS No. 01.04.25
Issue No. 2
Effective Date: 01/15/2008
Review: April 1 E2Y
01. POLICY STATEMENTS
01.01 This policy is intended to help
01.02 This document's purpose is to encourage the
production and offering of quality distance education courses and programs and
to protect the rights of faculty, students, and
01.03 This document addresses issues raised by the
creation, use, and distribution of various forms of electronically published
course materials and clarifies the rights and responsibilities of the parties
involved.
02.
DEFINITIONS
02.01 "Distance Education" is instruction in
which the majority of instruction occurs when the student and instructor are
not in the same physical setting. A class is considered a distance education
class if the students receive more than one-half of the instruction at a
distance. Distance education can be delivered synchronously or asynchronously
to locations away from
02.02 ”Electronically Published Course Materials" are
materials that use electronic methods to teach students.
02.03 "Intellectual Property" is the work product
of authors and inventors.
02.04 "Category" is a classification of a work's
ownership and the compensation associated with it. The classification reflects
individual efforts and university resources used to produce the work.
03.
GENERAL POLICIES
03.01 Copyright Ownership. The Regents' copyright policy
recognizes that in most instances faculty members own copyright in scholarly
works they create. Therefore, faculty members generally hold copyright in
electronically published materials they create on their own initiative.
However, the Regents' copyright policy recognizes that
a. Jointly Created Works. The faculty author and
b. Student Works. The copyright law controls works created by students. Students own
copyright of their works. Faculty members must obtain a student’s permission to
use the student’s work in a faculty-authored work.
03.02 Faculty Responsibility To Students. Faculty members have a responsibility
to meet the reasonable needs of their students, including those needs best
addressed by the use of technologies to make class materials readily available.
a. Example.
For example, if remote students or students with disabilities need special accommodations
or recordings, faculty should respond in the ordinary course of teaching and
extend resources available under reasonable circumstances. (See UPPS No.
07.11.01, Section 03.03, or the Faculty Resource Guide)
b. Ownership. Electronically published course materials are the property and
responsibility of the faculty member who creates or authorizes them. This
ownership includes, for example, tape recordings and videotapes created in the
ordinary course of instruction.
c. Disposing of Materials. Faculty should be willing to use technologies
appropriate to the circumstances to make their course materials reasonably
available to their currently registered students. Faculty may dispose of such
materials in such manner as they deem appropriate in accordance with their
department's Records Retention Policy. If
03.03 Course Development. Faculty may receive release time for duties
performed in the best interests
03.04 Revision Rights. Faculty should generally retain the right and have
the responsibility to update, edit, or revise electronically developed course
materials that become out of date. In certain circumstances, faculty should
place a time limit upon the use of electronically developed course materials
that are time-sensitive, regardless of who owns the copyright to these
materials.
a. These rights and limitations may be negotiated in advance of the
creation of the materials and may be reduced to writing. In the absence of a
written contract, each faculty member has the right and obligation to revise
work on an annual basis in order to maintain academic standards.
b. If a faculty member does choose to revise the work and such revision is
done satisfactorily, the faculty member retains the rights to full royalties as
discussed below for another year. If
03.05 Royalties. Faculty members will receive
all royalties that may accrue from the commercialization of electronically
published course materials they create on their own initiative. On the other
hand,
a. Commercialization.
Copyright law permits joint owners to pursue commercialization either jointly
or separately, with accounting. Other circumstances may require review on an
individual basis. An example would be the creation of electronically developed
course materials initiated by a faculty member who uses substantial
b. Dividing Royalties. In the absence of a contract with other terms,
specific division of royalties is addressed in Section 04 below. In instances
of joint ownership among faculty members when
03.06 Contributed Materials. The author may incur liabilities
by including material in electronically published course materials that he or
she has not created. Examples include using voices or images of persons without
their permission.
a. Compliance with Law.
b. Author's responsibilities. The author of electronically published course
materials is responsible for obtaining written permissions and releases
necessary to avoid infringing copyright or invading privacy rights of others.
The author is also responsible for retaining such documentation in accordance
with the Texas State Records Retention Schedule.
03.07 Using
03.08 Protecting the Work.
03.09 Retaining Non-exclusive License. Except in Category 1 below,
03.10 Administering this Policy.
a. Initial Determination. A faculty member should first meet with his or her department
chair and dean to determine: (1) the category to which the electronically
published course materials will be assigned; and (2) issues related to
ownership, university resource commitment, and royalties. These parties will
prepare their agreement in writing.
b. Review.
The faculty member will forward the written agreement to the Patent and
Copyright Committee for its review and assurance that the policy is being
applied equitably.
c. Resolving Issues. The Patent and Copyright Committee will advise the
faculty member, dean, and chair of any inequitable applications of the policy.
The chair and dean shall resolve the matter with the faculty member. If they
cannot successfully resolve these issues the decision of the Vice President for
Academic Affairs will be final.
04.
SPECIFIC CATEGORIES ASSIGNING
OWNERSHIP AND ROYALTIES
04.01 Special Note. Categories 1 through 4 do not address situations in
which
04.02 Category 1: Totally Faculty or Staff Generated. A work is
placed in Category 1 if it resulted from an individual's efforts on his or her
own personal time without any direct support from or through
a. Example 1. A faculty member in Sociology works with a publishing company to
create a web-based course. The publishing company provides 700 hours of
instructional design and production support and the course is mounted on the
company's server. All of the work is done on the faculty member's own time, but
some of the development is done on weekends using the faculty member's office
computer.
b. Example 2. A professor in Psychology is approached by the publishing arm of a
learned society to create a CD containing 2,000 images of evidence that the
professor has photographed in preparing for classes over the years. The
professor took the photographs on weekends using his own camera and film, but
used the department's copy machine. The learned society creates and markets the
CD.
c. Ownership and Compensation. The individual owns all intellectual property, may
receive compensation for the work, and retains distribution rights.
04.03 Category 2: Minimal University Resources. A work is placed in
Category 2 if it resulted from the individual's efforts with minimal resources
above and beyond those normally provided.
a. Example 1. A faculty member works with Digital, Inc., a web
course publishing company, to put the course, "Serving an Aging
Population", totally on the web.
b. Example 2. An adjunct faculty member who teaches Accounting Principles for
c. Ownership and Compensation. The individual owns intellectual property and has
the right to distribute the work. The individual may receive compensation for
any distribution outside the
04.04 Category 3:
a. Example 1. A faculty member volunteers to make his or her department's literature
course totally available on the web.
b. Example 2.
c. Ownership and Compensation. The individual owns intellectual property and has
the right to distribute it and receive compensation for any distribution
outside
faculty member will each receive a percentage of the royalty as
negotiated. In case of multiple authors, the authors will share the royalty pro
rata based on their participation.
04.05 Category 4: Work Made For Hire/Texas State Assigns Duty to
Faculty or Staff Member to Develop a Work. A work is placed in Category 4 if
a. Example. The Chair of Curriculum and Instruction assigns a
faculty member to a course that will be videotaped and broadcast the next year
to sites in 5 school districts as part of a new masters program offered by the
department. The faculty member is given course releases for the fall and spring
semesters. All of the design and production work is done during working hours.
The faculty member is assigned a .5 FTE research assistant for the academic
year. Instructional Technologies Support contributes 250 hours in the design
and production of the videotapes.
b. Ownership and Compensation.
04.06 Category 5: Faculty Member Uses Own Work as Part of a
a. Example 1. See Category 2, Example 1. In this case, the faculty member might
offer the course at
b. Example 2. See Category 3, Example 2. In this case, the faculty member might
teach the course to students in the program. There would be no compensation to
the faculty member beyond the standard compensation for teaching the course. If
c. Ownership and Compensation. Ownership is determined as provided in Categories 1
through 4. There will be no extra compensation beyond normal teaching
compensation for use of the work.
05.
OTHER RESPONSIBILITIES
05.01 Academic Departments. The academic department chair, in
consultation with the faculty, shall (a) ensure that the technology used is
appropriate to the nature and objectives of the course and program; (b) ensure
currency of materials, courses, and programs; (c) negotiate appropriate
workload adjustments for faculty in accordance with their full professional
responsibilities; (d) inform potential students of the technology and other
resources required to successfully complete the course or program; and (e)
ensure that evaluation of the distance education course or program examines
effectiveness and that the course or program is comparable to campus-based
courses and programs.
05.02 Support Services. Each university division shall provide appropriate
student and faculty support services to ensure success in the development and
delivery of distance education courses and programs.
06.
REVIEWERS OF THIS UPPS
06.01 Reviewers of this UPPS include the following:
Position Date
Associate Vice President
for Academic Affairs April 1 E2Y
University Attorney April
1 E2Y
07.
CERTIFICATION STATEMENT
This UPPS has been approved by the following individuals in their
official capacities and represents
Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs;
senior reviewer of this UPPS
Provost and Vice President for Academic
Affairs
President