2 Aug
2009
2 Aug
'09
9:59 a.m.
On Sun, Aug 02, 2009 at 12:48:45PM +0200, Fons Adriaensen wrote:
Prof. Keller writes 'We employ the students
...'.
[This] is certainly not correct for any normal student
who would actually be paying the institute instead
of the reverse. (..) it would seem morally wrong (to me)
if the institute 'grabs' his copyright.
While I'd tend to agree the institute 'grabbing' students'
copyright seems like a morally questionable affair, i believe
it is quite common for universities to have students sign a
document saying the copyright to anything they do for their
university work belongs to the university. Afaik this is
both legally and morally shakey, and institutions don't try
to enforce it.
Of course, it's quite possible that the students in Prof.
Keller's case were actually paid or otherwise compensated
for this work.
And what would be the situation of (again, just an
example) Prof. Keller himself ? Certainly he is an
employee of his educational institute.
Right - copyrights to the work would 'by default' belong
to the institution, but you could of course make other
arrangements to reward the copyrights back to the author,
or get permission to release them under the GPL.
Arnout