© Considerations for online courses
There are a number of key intellectual property issues that affect online course developers, including:
- Legal liability for copyright or trademark infringement within online courses
- Changing definitions of what constitutes a "copy" in Internet technologies
- Ownership of the course-development work of instructors, faculty, staff, freelancers, vendors, and students
- Commercial use of content developed for educational purposes
- Ownership of content before and after processing for the Web through a team-development effort
- Ownership of synchronous communication activities (e.g., lectures, class discussions) recorded for the course
Academic institutions, governmental bodies, and nonprofit institutions have special intellectual property concerns and traditions of use that are somewhat different from those faced by for-profit companies. For example:
- Organizations and institutions that receive governmental grants or funding may have specific requirements regarding the extent to which copyright can be claimed on materials funded by these monies
- Academic institutions have a tradition of faculty ownership of materials that is quite different from "employee-employer" ownership policies in for-profit companies
- The special exceptions that apply to materials used for limited educational purposes in an academic or non-profit environment may no longer apply when coursework is routinely archived or "commercialized"
Of course, most of these issues aren't new to companies and institutions - they are just complicated by the addition of online course offerings to traditional publishing venues.
»Legal liability
Besides the legal liability of the institution/company developing the courses, each developer should consider her/his own liability for copyright infringement.
Copyright owners who feel they have a case for infringement usually sue the company/institution, but that may not insulate the developer who takes the infringing action from an individual lawsuit... And penalties can be serious--courts can award up to $100,000 for each separate act of willful infringement (where you knew you were infringing), and even if you don't know you are infringing, you can still be liable for damages and attorney's fees.
