Professor opposes sale of
notes
By Dave Stephens
Assistant
Campus Editor
When a student takes notes during class, there
is an unwritten rule that the student will use those notes only for
academic purposes.
But when a student takes those notes and sells
them to an online or local note company, is the student breaking any
laws?
It depends on whom you ask.
"Anything that a professor puts into a tangible
form of expression is considered copyrighted," said Donna Ferullo, director
of the university copyright office and an assistant professor of library
sciences.
A tangible form of expression, said Ferullo, includes
handing out notes in class, writing notes on an overhead projector or
giving a Power Point presentation.
"There doesn't need to be a formal copyright request
sent to the copyright office, or the copyright symbol placed on the
article," said Ferullo.
Mathieu Deflem, an assistant professor of sociology,
started a campaign to stop Internet notes sites from selling professors'
notes.
Deflem said that a professor's lecture notes were
a matter of intellectual property rights and that the distribution of
notes should be at the discretion of the professor.
"Professors are all about sharing their work,"
said Deflem, "but I want to share my work in the way I want it to be
shared."
Deflem said companies that sell notes of his lectures
do not ask for his permission to sell lecture notes and offer no guarantee
that the notes will be the correct notes for the class.
"Many universities and colleges now have policies
that prohibit the sale of notes based on intellectual property rights.
In the state of California, it is even a law," said Deflem.
Adam Phipps, owner of Class Notes in West Lafayette,
said that his company rarely has problems from professors who don't
want their notes being sold.
"If I was a professor, I would prefer that students
have the older notes; that way they can spend less time writing and
more time listening to what is being said," Phipps said. "I really like
having notes; I would rather listen then write."
Phipps said student note takers are not violating
copyright laws because every student's notes are different.
"Once a lecture goes into a student's ear and out
the pen, it's the student's own interpretation of the lecture," said
Phipps.
But according to Ferullo, even a professor's words
can be protected.
"If a professor is being video or sound recorded,
the lecture is copyrighted," said Ferullo.
Phipps also said that his company makes sure that
all of its student note takers are legitimate students with a grade
point average of 3.0.
He said that many online note companies went bankrupt
because they did not put an emphasis on taking good notes.
"A court ruled that 90 percent of what a professor
teaches is common knowledge," said Phipps, "so there is little need
to copyright most of the information professors cover."
Deflem, however, said that most college lectures
do not cover common knowledge.
"We do not deal with general ideas; when somebody
gives a lecture on a specific heart surgery procedure, it's not common
knowledge," said Deflem.
But students profiting from his and other professor's
notes is not what makes him want to stop the practice.
"It's got nothing to do with the money; I make
hardly any money teaching anyway; it's about protecting the rights we
have to our own property," said Deflem.
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