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- Xref: sparky comp.admin.policy:1659 comp.edu:2226 comp.software.licensing:121 misc.education:5409
- Path: sparky!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!ub!csn!teal!bhayden
- From: bhayden@teal.csn.org (Bruce Hayden)
- Newsgroups: comp.admin.policy,comp.edu,comp.software.licensing,misc.education
- Subject: Re: reality check - with apologies
- Message-ID: <bhayden.724691378@teal>
- Date: 18 Dec 92 15:09:38 GMT
- References: <1992Dec16.132319.520@uoft02.utoledo.edu> <BzDnMz.D3A@mtholyoke.edu> <bhayden.724607233@teal> <BzF02E.Kxo@mtholyoke.edu>
- Sender: news@csn.org (news)
- Organization: Colorado SuperNet, Inc.
- Lines: 47
- Nntp-Posting-Host: teal.csn.org
-
- jbotz@mtholyoke.edu (Jurgen Botz) writes:
-
- >In article <bhayden.724607233@teal> bhayden@teal.csn.org (Bruce Hayden) writes:
- >>jbotz@mtholyoke.edu (Jurgen Botz) writes:
- >>>Furthermore, if your institution does not have a written policy in
- >>>this regard (that you signed!), then any software written by you is
- >>>your property and your property alone. (The author of any work
- >>>automatically has copyright ownership in most countries including the
- >>>US, unless he/she explicitly renounced such rights.)
- >>
- >>I am not sure I agree. Most faculty would be considered employees of
- >>the school. You do not own software (or any other work) created in
- >>the course of your employeement, if you are an employee - your
- >>employer does. Where the agreement is necessary is when you are an
- >>independant contractor. In that case the work belongs to the creator
- >>unless a contract says otherwise.
- >>
- >>Some of the inidica of employment that faculty would fail would be:
- >>- they get regular paychecks, with all the proper deductions.
- >>- the school usually provides a place of work.
- >>- the school usually has some control over what they do.
-
- >Where do you get your "facts"..? You're making them up according
- >to what seems reasonable to you! (Ok, you used the word "would",
- >indicating that your writings are conjecture...)
-
- >It simply isn't true... just being employed DOES NOT cause you to
- >automatically lose all rights over your work. Your employer has to
- >explicitly enter into an agreement with you in this regard, and you
- >have to sign it. Otherwise what you create is yours, and without a
- >document with your signature on it no court of law (in the USA) would
- >find for your employer.
-
- >Of course most employers of people who create published work in the
- >course of their employment are fully aware of this and have all these
- >things as part of the standard paperwork everybody signs when they
- >first get hired. If you yourself are a software engineer, why don't
- >you go over to your personell office and ask to see some of the things
- >you signed when you started with your organization?
-
- If that is the law - please give the cites. I believe that the C/R
- statute, and the seminal case (CCNV) make a strong distinction
- between employees and independant contractors.
-
- Bruce E. Hayden
- (303) 758-8400
- bhayden@csn.org
-