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DC-area schools consider copyright policy that takes ownership of students’ work

washingtonpost.com

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Re: DC-area schools consider copyright policy that takes ownership of students’ work

#31

Post by pyre »

noonespecial wrote: post #16
binarymax wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why I propose the joint copyright 'solution'. The student would also get a cut from any profits made. That seems decent to me.

Id agree so long as students have a choice. Otherwise, it's just the plantation owner talking about how good the slaves have it because he feeds them so well.

How much profit is being derived from the work of children though? It seems a stretch to make a comparison with plantations/slaves. Any profit that is generated from children in school is a side-effect, not a primary goal. Though I can see this setting up a situation of perverse incentives.

Re: DC-area schools consider copyright policy that takes ownership of students’ work

#32

Post by pyre »

cs702 wrote: post #29

Every time I read something like this, I can't help but feel that society has lost sight that the primary purpose of copyright is to promote and encourage creative endeavors for everyone's benefit [1], not to safeguard individual ownership of 'intellectual property.' Is anyone at this school system even wondering, "does society at large benefit from this?" -- [1] As pyre points out below, this is the case in the US,…

Depends. As I understand it, using copyright for the betterment of society is a British/American view of copyright. Elsewhere in Europe it's seen as an author's right to control one's work.

Re: DC-area schools consider copyright policy that takes ownership of students’ work

#33

Post by DanBC »

jiggy2011 wrote: post #18
DanBC wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See, for example, the scam for poetry "competitions" and vanity publishing.

I don't see the connection. Vanity publishers make money from the author by basically selling books with a big markup. Here they are just taking IP (of which 99.999% is going to be basically valueless). The only part that might make money would be selling lesson plans, but that would become a saturated market pretty quick.

A vanity publisher runs a poetry "competition"; they award a first, second, and third prize. They then publish all entries in a book, and people buy the book too see their poem in "print".

Schools now do something similar, but without the competition.

Re: DC-area schools consider copyright policy that takes ownership of students’ work

#34

Post by ihsw »

jiggy2011 wrote: post #6

Why would you want to own the IP for a bunch of crappy school projects?

To give plagiarism more teeth? To deter students from copying each-others notes? To reinforce a policy of students accessing knowledge from only legitimate sources (ie: textbooks)? The applications are numerous and potentially lucrative.

Re: DC-area schools consider copyright policy that takes ownership of students’ work

#35

Post by jiggy2011 »

ihsw wrote: post #34
jiggy2011 wrote: post #6

Why would you want to own the IP for a bunch of crappy school projects?

To give plagiarism more teeth? To deter students from copying each-others notes? To reinforce a policy of students accessing knowledge from only legitimate sources (ie: textbooks)? The applications are numerous and potentially lucrative.

If you cheat on your homework we'll sue you?

Re: DC-area schools consider copyright policy that takes ownership of students’ work

#36

Post by jiggy2011 »

DanBC wrote: post #33
jiggy2011 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see the connection. Vanity publishers make money from the author by basically selling books with a big markup. Here they are just taking IP (of which 99.999% is going to be basically valueless). The only part that might make money would be selling lesson plans, but that would become a saturated market pretty quick.

A vanity publisher runs a poetry "competition"; they award a first, second, and third prize. They then publish all entries in a book, and people buy the book too see their poem in "print". Schools now do something similar, but without the competition.

I see, you mean sell the kids own work back to the parents?

Re: DC-area schools consider copyright policy that takes ownership of students’ work

#37

Post by homosaur »

ihsw wrote: post #34
jiggy2011 wrote: post #6

Why would you want to own the IP for a bunch of crappy school projects?

To give plagiarism more teeth? To deter students from copying each-others notes? To reinforce a policy of students accessing knowledge from only legitimate sources (ie: textbooks)? The applications are numerous and potentially lucrative.

And how does copyright aid this? What's the school going to do, start suing kids that plagiarize?

Re: DC-area schools consider copyright policy that takes ownership of students’ work

#38

Post by michaelt »

jiggy2011 wrote: post #6

Why would you want to own the IP for a bunch of crappy school projects?

Some universities have plagiarism detection systems and to tell if you're copying from your buddy who took the course last year they store all submitted work. Often these systems are outsourced to companies like 'turnitin' [1] which can also compare work between universities. Work is stored forever, and if anyone submits something similar to your work, professors get to see both side by side for comparison.

In order to store students work in the plagiarism detection system, the student has to grant the university/turnitin an appropriate copyright license.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turnitin

Re: DC-area schools consider copyright policy that takes ownership of students’ work

#39

Post by 1wheel »

jiggy2011 wrote: post #6

Why would you want to own the IP for a bunch of crappy school projects?

I don't think they intended to:

> Questioned about the policy after it was introduced, Jacobs said it was never the board’s “intention to declare ownership” of students’ work. “Counsel needs to restructure the language,” Jacobs said. “We want the district to get the recognition . . . not take their work.” Jacobs said last week that it was possible amendments could be made to the policy at the board’s next meeting. The board approved the policy for consideration by a vote of 8 to 1 last month but has removed the item from its agenda Thursday.

Re: DC-area schools consider copyright policy that takes ownership of students’ work

#40

Post by Angostura »

Are there any amusing ways of hacking this policy?

What are the implications, for example of a student preparing a piece of work that breaches the law in some way and then immediately informing the authorities since the school board now owns said work.

I can imagine the Board finding themselves owning all kinds of work that 'accidentally' breach copyright. It might be interesting to try and engineer such a 'poison pill' piece of course work and watch the board squirm as they argue that 'this really doesn't belong to us'.

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