The AAUP filed an aniicus brief in July in a Kansas superlative Court case on faculty ownership of intellectual wealth Pittsburg State University/Kansas National Education Association v Kansas Board of rulers was brought by the Pittsburg State University's local chapter of the Kansas National Education Association (KNEA) against the university and the Kansas Board of governors because of the regents' propos policy giving ownership of faculty intellectual wealth to institutions.The AAUP filed an aniicus brief in July in a Kansas superlative Court case on faculty ownership of intellectual wealth Pittsburg State University/Kansas National Education Association v Kansas Board of rulers was brought by the Pittsburg State University's local chapter of the Kansas National Education Association (KNEA) against the university and the Kansas Board of governors because of the regents' propos policy giving ownership of faculty intellectual wealth to institutions. KNEA argued that intellectual quality ownership was a mandatory expose of collective bargaining, and thus of that kind a change in policy could not be implemented unilaterally. In 2004 a Kansas appellate court rul against the KNEA, stating that copyright ownership was not a mandatory expose of bargaining, because such a practice would conflict with the federal law's provision that an author may negotiate away his or her intellectual estate rights but cannot be required to do to such a degree To reach this conclusion, the court assumed that faculty intellectual peculiarity was work for hire, and thus the thing owned of the university. However, below both law and AAUPsupported policy, faculty members are generally the proprietors of their own intellectual work products The KNEA appealed the case to the Kansas principal Court. While the case also deals with broader collective bargaining issues, the AAUP's interest in it is focused onward the ownership of faculty intellectual exclusive right In the brief, the Association argues that the work-forhire doctrine does not include faculty intellectual attribute pointing out that federal appeDate court decisions, traditional academic practices, and notions of academic freedom consider that faculty retain ownership of their work as original authors. The AAUP's Statement upon Copyright holds that in traditional academic works "the faculty member rather than the institution determines the bring under rule matter, the intellectual approach and direction, and the conclusions," which is inherently inconsistent with the work-for-hire analysis. AAUP-recommended policy recognizes that a certain quantity of faculty work may be work for hire, unless such work would require use of extraordinary resources. The use of traditional resources "such as office space, supplies, library facilities, ordinary access to computer and networks, and money" are not sufficient to make faculty work into work for hire. The amicus brief is available forward the AAUP Web site. -GB Copyright American Association of University Professors Sep/Oct 2005 |
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