Through scholarship, research, and teaching universities engage, continually, in the creation of original works of authorship which are eligible for copyright protection. Who owns these copyrights and what may the owner do with these works is the subject of ongoing discussion in academia. Digital media and its potential to involve significant investment on the part of both the institution and its individual members present new ownership issues that differ from the traditional perspective of the academy. Nonetheless the starting point for sorting out ownership remains based in the traditional principles of copyright law and employee - employer relationships.

Traditional Ownership and Authorship

Initially, ownership of copyright to a work is assigned to the author of the work. Authorship, however, doesn't always equate to the individual who created a work. Authorship may be attributed to the employer of an individual who creates an original work in the course of his or her employment.

Traditionally, when faculty at universities write books and articles their institutions allow them to retain authorship and the copyright in their work. Faculty are university employees, and the U.S. Copyright Act's Work For Hire doctrine provides institutions with the right to claim both authorship of the work and ownership of the copyright in the original works created by their employees. However, as is the case at the University of Minnesota, most academic institutions grant an exception to work for hire rules, allowing members of the institution to retain their individual copyrights in most traditional circumstances.

Rights of Ownership

Copyright owners enjoy six exclusive rights over their works. Baring statutory exceptions to these rights a copyright owner has the exclusive right to:

• Reproduce the work
• Create a derivative work
• Distribute the work
• Perform the work in public
• Display the work in public
• In the case of sound recordings, perform the work publicly by means of digital audio transmission

Section 106 of in chapter 1 in the U.S. Copyright Law sets forth these rights. The next 15 sections of chapter 1, beginning with Fair Use, Section 107, describe numerous exceptions to these rights. In the law's attempt to balance private interest with public interest the remainder of chapter 1 renders these exclusive rights subject to limitation.

These rights are divisible and may be assigned or transferred by the copyright owner in part or in whole, to other parties.

Regents Policy on Intellectual Property

The University of Minnesota Regents Policy on Intellectual Property defines terms for the University in the copyright ownership landscape and sets the boundaries for individual ownership of work products. In general the policy declares that the University shall be the sole owner of all specially commissioned intellectual property created through the use of University resources or facilities. The policy continues, setting forth an important clarification of this declaration. In section VI, subdivision I the policy allows that "A regular academic work product is owned by the creator and not the University."

Two definitions in the policy at Section III are critical to determining ownership of intellectual property created at the University. The policy defines and distinguishes a regular academic work product from a specially commissioned work. Familiarize yourself with these distinctions:

• Regular Academic Work Product "Regular Academic Work Product" means any copyrightable work product which is an artistic creation or which constitutes, or is intended to disseminate the results of, academic research or scholarly study. Regular academic work product includes, but is not limited to, books, class notes, theses and dissertations, course materials designed for the web, distance education and other technology-oriented educational materials, articles, poems, musical works, dramatic works, pantomimes and choreographic works, pictorial, graphic and sculptural works, or other works of artistic imagination. Software specifically needed to support a regular academic work product or which is designed to disseminate the results of academic research and scholarly study is also considered a regular academic work product.
  
  
• Specially Commissioned Work. "Specially Commissioned Work" means a work specially ordered or commissioned and which the University and creator expressly agree in a written instrument signed by them shall be considered as such.