As an employed educator that has written a commercially successful book, I took particular notice of a Washington Post article reporting that the State of Maryland's Prince George's County Board of Education has proposed that all work created by school employees and/or students be deemed the exclusive property of the school system. Now I have to admit, as a corporate contract attorney I have written many an employee contract that included provisions for ownership of intellectual property, but those contracts included a sharing of patents and/or copyrights and only for inventions or writings that were created as a requirement of their employment.
But why is this proposal so revolutionary? Because one of the first things you learn as an educator is to "borrow" preexisting teaching materials, lessons and strategies. Regardless, no one but the original creator holds any ownership rights in the original material unless their creators are employed by textbook manufacturers. Although I have voluntarily created lesson plans that have been published for free use by others, I have a problem with anyone thinking they might deserve a share of the royalties collected from the sale of my recent book. So, it got me to thinking. Does my school board think I took time while on the job to write the book? Did I write the book while on school property? Did I use any resources or school equipment when researching or typing the manuscript? As an attorney, I ensured before writing the book that I would never do everything that would ever give my employer a chance of claiming rights in my creation. I wrote the book entirely at home, on my personal laptop (like I am right now), used my Internet for research and did so during school breaks (Spring and Summer) after school and off school grounds. I did all of this so I could honestly tell my employers how long it took to write the book and that no one other than my wife deserved or earned royalties (I pledged them all to her prior to publication).
As reported in the article, "Board Chair Verjeana M. Jacobs said the proposal was designed to make it clear who owns teacher-developed curriculum created while using apps on iPads that are school property." My response to that? Refuse to create anything for school on school property and time. Copyright anything you might use, put it into use prior to coming to school and hire an attorney to protect your intellectual property. Until schools start paying employees fairly, forget about it. As long as the Second Amendment is being used by gun owners as a justification not to relinquish their property(firearms), they can take my copyrights "when you pry it from my cold, dead hands."
But why is this proposal so revolutionary? Because one of the first things you learn as an educator is to "borrow" preexisting teaching materials, lessons and strategies. Regardless, no one but the original creator holds any ownership rights in the original material unless their creators are employed by textbook manufacturers. Although I have voluntarily created lesson plans that have been published for free use by others, I have a problem with anyone thinking they might deserve a share of the royalties collected from the sale of my recent book. So, it got me to thinking. Does my school board think I took time while on the job to write the book? Did I write the book while on school property? Did I use any resources or school equipment when researching or typing the manuscript? As an attorney, I ensured before writing the book that I would never do everything that would ever give my employer a chance of claiming rights in my creation. I wrote the book entirely at home, on my personal laptop (like I am right now), used my Internet for research and did so during school breaks (Spring and Summer) after school and off school grounds. I did all of this so I could honestly tell my employers how long it took to write the book and that no one other than my wife deserved or earned royalties (I pledged them all to her prior to publication).
As reported in the article, "Board Chair Verjeana M. Jacobs said the proposal was designed to make it clear who owns teacher-developed curriculum created while using apps on iPads that are school property." My response to that? Refuse to create anything for school on school property and time. Copyright anything you might use, put it into use prior to coming to school and hire an attorney to protect your intellectual property. Until schools start paying employees fairly, forget about it. As long as the Second Amendment is being used by gun owners as a justification not to relinquish their property(firearms), they can take my copyrights "when you pry it from my cold, dead hands."
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