A proposal by the Prince George’s County Board of Education to copyright work created by staff and students for school could mean that a picture drawn by a first-grader, a lesson plan developed by a teacher or an app created by a teen would belong to the school system, not the individual.
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This is not my district, but one near me. It is in Maryland and I am in Virginia, but we are both in the metropolitan Washington, DC area. What do you think about this?
Why are they doing this? It would prevent everyone from sharing I would think.
I think they want to be able to have ownership of a new method that a teacher may come up with to teach students so the county can get compensated if it is used by others. But the way it is written even a drawing done by a 6 year old, with their own supplies(not the schools) on their own time(not in school) can be owned/copyrighted by the school district.
Quoting frndlyfn:Why are they doing this? It would prevent everyone from sharing I would think.
It would honestly make me think twice about letting my kids submit anything for school work, including projects. This is a really bad idea.
I think it is wrong! If teachers are working together within a district to create a marketable curriculum I could see the district trying to stake a claim, but for anything else I think it is a scary step.
I was thinking about poems I wrote for an assignment in school, but later submitted to a magazine years ago. They were mine! It would be totally, completely wrong for the school to claim them! I never had them copywrited, but I could have, and I feel it should be illegal for a school to be able to claim copyrights on intellectual property like that.
My daughter writes stories and poems all the time. She uses some for assignments. I can easily see some of these being publishable in the future. She should not have to worry about the school being able to steal them from her. This could go for artwork, science projects (say a kid comes up with something really innovative that they could copyright and earn money for unless the school steals the rights to it), etc.
Dangerous territory IMO. I hope that don't rewrite or revisit that issue at their next meeting!
Quoting steelcrazy:
It would honestly make me think twice about letting my kids submit anything for school work, including projects. This is a really bad idea.
Same here. Sadly I would feel I would need to encourage my kids to turn in mediocre work and work that doesn't show their full potential to try to avoid the school knowing about any good ideas they have to steal.
That definitely needs to be reworked/reworded. Having it cover students' work is wrong, imo.
Even for how it covers teachers is wrong, especially if the teacher developed it off hours - at night, on the weekends or over the summer. I have developed COUNTLESS items when I have not officially been on the clock and would not be thrilled if every worksheet, activity, lesson plan etc. I make was under copyright by my school.
That is interesting...I think that policy would actually violate copyright laws. Whether or not something has been officially registered with a copyright the owner's rights are protected at the time the piece is placed in some fixed form. So, just the fact that it was written down to turn it in means you child already owns the copyright to it. The fact it was a homework or class assigment should not change ownership. I see lawsuits in the school board's future.
As a parent I would NOT have my child turn in her best work if there was a possibility of it being claimed by the school. Turning it in for a grade could be determined to be coerced/forced surrendering of the copyright to the material. Again I see lawyers having a field day. If agreeing to this is a condition of enrollment, then they have issues of violating the laws for a free public education.
That's my 2 cents. Elaine
Cameras on buses *UPDATE*
- nova.mommy
on Feb. 3, 2013 at 6:05 PM