development of an education license or license option for Creative Commons

["Sean Rugge" <RUGGESM AT pwcs.edu>]

In the private sector I could see this being the case...but in the public sector it would set a dangerous precedent for public funds used for prohibiting material from being used non-commercially/shared among colleagues...and how could one district prohibit sharing with another when they are all part of the Dept of Ed?

 

A bit nonsensical if you ask me...and just a prime example of the absurdity of the concept of intellectual ownership, which seems to be sweeping the globe.

 

The goal of the site is for teachers to share with one another the materials they create.

 

Sean Rugge
Instructional Technology Resource Teacher
Saunders Middle School
(703)-670-9188 x289
ruggesm AT pwcs.edu

 

Sharing educational materials online at
http://www.esolpc.com/teacherhost

 

>>> "Dennis Kim-Prieto" <dprieto AT kinoy.rutgers.edu> 04/26/06 1:57 PM >>>

Sean:

You may be thinking of the copyright doctrine known as "works for hire," which allows an employer who has taken the economic risk associated with creating the work to claim copyright in that work.  In order to be a "work for hire," it must fall under one of two categories:  the work must either be prepared by an employee within the ordinary course of employment, or it must have been commissioned or otherwise specially ordered by a contractor for that purpose.  If a public school system is an employer, and if they regularly employ teachers and ask them to create original educational materials to be used in their courses, then it seems to me that most courts would have no problem looking at this work as "work for hire," and therefore subject to the copyright of the public school system. 

However, note that facts, lists, and instructions, are not, by themselves, original enough to be protected by copyright.  Recipes, for example, are not in and of themselves protected by copyright (which is one reason why cookbooks rely upon photographs, prefatory material, and often use trademarked names or other material to clear the bar of originality).  Whether a lesson plan is more like a recipe or more like an essay, however, I can't really answer.  If you feel you have a claim, you may want to seek counsel.

Universities regularly assert their copyrights in the works of professors who publish for tenure.  But more ominously, mere educational use is not (and may never have been) enough to allow for fair use.  I think that your reliance on cc licenses may be the best bet for allowing open in-class access to these materials, but then, I'm not your employer, and I can't say how your employer would react to this proposal. 

To close by answering one of your later questions, there is, apparently, no incentive for a teacher to be creative and to invent new lesson plans.  But then, my own experience with public school systems left me with the impression that they never really did view creativity as a desirable characteristic for their employees. 



Hope this helps,

dkp



Dennis Kim-Prieto, J.D., M.S., M.F.A.
Reference Librarian
Rutgers School of Law -- Newark
123 Washington Street
Newark, NJ 07102

(v)++973.353.3037
(f)++973.353.1574

>>> RUGGESM AT pwcs.edu 04/26/06 01:27PM >>>
Through creating http://www.esolpc.com/teacherhost (using ccHost) a site where teachers can share educational materials online with one another and utilize Creative Commons licensing http://creativecommons.org as a means of protecting/sharing their creative works...I have run across an issue I hadn't fully considered regarding schools claiming ownership over educational materials...

Should Public School Systems be able to claim copyright ownership over lesson plans or other educational materials created by teachers (why or why not)?

Are there examples of schools/school systems (public or private) which do this contractually (in contractual language)?

It is widely known that teachers share educational materials at conferences nationwide...some of it in digital format...What would a school system hope to accomplish by prohibiting this? or prohibiting the creative teacher/teachers from distibution of such materials online? or dividing this and saying that paper copies are ok (keep killing trees?)...but no electronic copies??

I am having a hard time understanding the mentality or desire of a Public School system to own the copyright over a teacher's creative educational materials.

Could a school district sell such materials if it so desired?

If so what incentive is their for a teacher to be creative and 'invent' new lesson plans at all?

Any discussion on this is greatly appreciated...