Re: Franz Flavors & software copyright

[wilensky%ucbdali@Berkeley (Robert Wilensky)]

I intended my comments in full awareness of the contractual aspect the
copyright law.  As I believe I mentioned, the University does NOT have
rights to lecture notes, or videos, even though they explicitly paid you to
give lectures, because they paid you to GIVE them only (this statement is
based on legal precedent, not on my opinion).  Of course, Yale may take any
position they like on the issue, but that does not mean it makes any legal
sense whatsoever.

Similarly, the university suggests that you do research (i. e., they cannot
fire you for not doing it (once you have tenure) as they can for not giving
lectures).  More specifically, they do not explicitly require that you write
programs (or books) as part of this work, and thus have no rights to either.

I am not aware that the university has been granted the right to copyrights
on gov't-funded work.  This would certainly change the picture.  However,
it's hard to believe, since they would then own the copyright on all the
technical books we have written on sold based on this research, and as they
have not claimed this right, it is hard to imagine they have it.

However, as has been wisely pointed out, I am not a lawyer (and you're
probably not either), and I would not advise anyone to take any of this
discussion too seriously.  However, if you are an author of a piece of
software, you should  get your own lawyer, because your university is most
likely trying to bamboozle you.