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Copyright Ownership Copyright Use Tutorial


Copyright Ownership in Brief

University faculty are both creators and users of copyrighted intellectual property. Ownership of the copyright to the materials used in a course will have a tremendous impact on whether how much, and under what conditions the materials can be used. Before proceeding further with this section, a review of Copyright Basics is recommended.

Faculty-Authored Materials

As a general rule, the creator of a copyrightable work is the initial copyright holder unless the work-for-hire provisions of the copyright act apply. Traditionally, the copyright to faculty-authored materials, such as journal articles, monographs, and course materials, has been held by the faculty author. With the advent of digital technologies and Web-based courses, many universities are revisiting their copyright ownership policies and focusing on how those policies apply to courses developed with substantial university resources. If your university policy designates faculty ownership of "traditional materials" and the faculty has not transferred the copyright (in writing) to another entity (such as a publisher), the faculty member is free to reproduce works she/she has authored. This would cover reproduction for any purpose, including such things as coursepacks, electronic reserves, and Web pages. In fact, if the faculty member continues to be the copyright holder of the work, he/she is also free to exercise any of the other rights of the copyright holder such as performance, distribution, display, and modification.

Not infrequentlly and particularly in the case of journal articles, publishers pressure the faculty author to transfer the copyright to them. Faculty need to fully appreciate the consequences of such a transfer and how they may be limited (or unable) to fully use, adapt, or reproduce their own article in the future. For additional discussion and sample language for publishing agreements, see Sample Publishing Agreement Language.

The University of North Carolina Board of Governors adopted a new Copyright Use and Ownership Policy on November 10, 2000, that applies to all sixteen constituent institutions. North Carolina State University has recently adopted an administrative regulation, Copyright Implementation Pursuant to Copyright Use and Ownership Policy of the University of North Carolina to implement that policy. For further information on NC State's Copyright Implementation Regulation, check developments on the NC State Copyright Committee Website. See also the Copyright Ownership Tutorial.