🚀 go-pugleaf

jbotz@mtholyoke.edu (Jurgen Botz) writes:

>In article <1992Dec16.132319.520@uoft02.utoledo.edu> dsmith@uoft02.utoledo.edu 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.)  If your work
>involves porting someone elses software, then it is a derivative work,
>and as such that portion that makes the work derivative is yours, i.e.
>you don't own the original software, but have full and sole ownership
>of the modifications that were necessary to port the software.  It is
>important to note here that many academic institutions require their
>faculty, staff, and students to sign a document that gives the
>institution copyright ownership of any work that is produced using the
>institution's resources, but if you did not sign any such document
>your work is yours.

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.

Bruce E. Hayden
(303) 758-8400
bhayden@csn.org