February 19, 2013:  Know Your (Intellectual Property) Rights

So, I am struggling with an intellectual property rights policy at work.  When you are not a research-based institution, such property rights seem unnecessary, but external agencies, looking to grant us accreditation or "certificates of approval," expect institutions to have them.  Instead of writing a nice clean policy today (and hoping for that is probably my first mistake), I have ended up in the world of parody song-writing again, using this time the anthemic Clash "Know Your Rights."

Know Your (Intellectual Property) Rights

This is an Institutional Service Announcement With Lawyer:

Know your rights, all three of them.

You have the right not to be filmed.

Transmission of lecture is a crime,

Unless it was done for a massive open online course.

Oh, know your rights.

And number two you have the right to create course content,

Provided of course you don't mind a little duplication, saturation,

And if you cross your fingers, circulation

Know your rights, these are your rights.

Oh, know these rights.

Number three, you have the right to academic freedom

As long as you're not dumb enough to actually believe it.

Know your rights, these are your rights.

Know your rights, these are your rights.

All three of them.

And it has been suggested in faculty quarters

That this is not enough.

Well . . . . Get off your seats.