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Questions and Responses from 4/26/00

Question 1: How does the policy draft deal with the "middle ground" of works under ownership and use?

Response: The task force attempted to include all varieties of works in writing the policy, but this proved impossible to accomplish. The group then approached the issue of a work’s instigation and the amount of the resources used in its completion.

Question 2: Often faculty who have previously published a work will want to "repurpose" that work. Within the new policy, how are these derivative works going to be handled?

Response: Ownership and use of derivative works would not be a part of the GA policy; this is determined by copyright law. Under that law, the right to prepare derivative works is an exclusive right of the copyright holder. If there has been a written agreement otherwise, then the agreement will dictate ownership and permissable uses.

Question 3: How are SPA employees being viewed regarding ownership and use under the draft policy? Often the SPA/EPA classification is only in terms of soft or hard money from the university and not the type of work being done. Are these concerns being considered by the task force in determining ownership and use of copyrighted materials? Is there staff representation on the GA task force?

Response: The default position for SPA works will likely be that they are "works-for-hire." There is not formal SPA representation on the task force, but their issues have been discussed by those who do sit with the group. The NC State campus group is especially aware of SPA concerns, and attention, as much as is possible within the pending policy, will be paid those concerns. That can better be addressed on the specific campuses rather than at the overall system level. One of the university duties will be to make the campus cognizant that all staff levels often participate in the creation of a work.

Question 4: In the area of "traditional work" vs. "work-for-hire," where is the line drawn and how do you know when you have crossed that? For example, a faculty member takes the notes and specifics of his/her teaching and, with the encouragement and resources of the university, converts this to a Web course. Does this conversion process and "impetus" change it from a "traditional work" to a "work-for-hire"?

The answer to this question would depend upon definitions which have not yet been established in the policy drafts and on how many of the details of the policy will be determined at the university and not the system level. There will likely be a mechanism from the policy for determining this at the university level. If there is substantial use of university resources in the conversion of the course, the university must account to the taxpayers for that money. However, NC State seeks to promote creativity and innovation, and this will not be thwarted by policy. The GA task force has also paid close attention to the question of incentives and disincentives, and Hoon and Crowell have been outspoken on the task force regarding this issue.

Question 5: What process of implementation will the GA policy go through once it has been completed and passed? Will campuses have some freedom to define aspects of its implementation, or will this be law? Will there need to be another NC State task force to define our position within the overall framework?

Response: It is still unclear how much, if any, latitude each campus will have to implement the system policy. If committees are to be formed at the campus level, then this campus will have a group representative of the campus community, and hopefully, chaired by the Provost, the chief academic officer of the university.

The system will likely release a broad set of statements accompanied by administrative addenda. The respective campuses will then institute their own specific interpretations. In such a case, the currently developing policy at NC State will take effect. This university’s work on a document will continue with considerably more input from all levels of the campus community—students, staff, faculty, adminstrators. There is no need to form a new NC State task force to develop our policy.

Question 6: What is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act as it is mentioned on the NC State Copyright Ownership Task Force Web page?

Response: This is a very large piece of legislation enacted in 1998 that is composed of multiple covering emerging technologies and copyright. There are provisions that target Internet Service Providers (ISP), distance education provisions, and technological protection issues, for example. Some of the sections of this legislation are not yet complete and have undergone or are undergoing studies and hearings by the U.S. Copyright Office to determine implementation and effects. NC State has participated in some of the hearings and testimony for the undecided provisions.

The meeting adjourned at 1:45 P.M.



Copyright Ownership Task Force