August 1999
Revised February 2000
Commercial note taking businesses are advertising on campus. These firms usually compensate individuals for taking class notes which will be made available to students. University rules, in combination with U.S. copyright laws, permit you to determine whether these commercial ventures may operate in your classroom.
The basis for your right to give or withhold permission to the commercial note takers who wish to operate in your class comes from two existing university regulations. Article V, section 5, paragraph 2 of the Faculty Senate Rules and Regulations permits you to deny visitors or auditors permission to attend your class. Please note that non-enrolled students may regularly visit a class only if they are otherwise enrolled full-time, if they pay tuition for the privilege of visiting your course, or if they are Kansas residents over 60 years old.
Article 22, section B, paragraph 2 of the Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities and Conduct may permit you to prohibit an enrolled student from making commercial use of your lectures. That section reads, "An offense against property is committed when a student . . . knowingly and without proper consent or authorization removes, uses, misappropriates, or sells the property of another person or the University." The sale of student notes of your lectures may be a violation of your property rights, i.e. your copyright. Materials are eligible for copyright when they meet the criteria of originality and are fixed in a medium of expression. In order to fix your lectures in a medium of expression, you are encouraged to use methods such as making detailed lecture notes, detailed overheads, slides, or online presentation slides (using programs such as MS PowerPoint), taping your lectures, etc. Any presentation materials or handouts should include a dated statement of copyright. You may also wish to alert students at the beginning of classes, both in verbal and written form, as to the copyright nature of your materials. In order to obtain statutory monetary damages in court, you as author would need to register the material with the U.S. Copyright Office.
By taking these steps, you are strengthening your claim to copyright for your lectures and other materials, and directly notifying students of restrictions on distributing, producing, and preparing derivative works from those lectures. The University authorizes enrolled students to take careful notes for the purpose of mastering the course material. No university authorization exists for an enrolled student to take notes for the purpose of selling them for profit. By taking certain steps, as outlined above, you strengthen your right to authorize reproduction and distribution of your lectures for profit, similar to the right you have to authorize a journal to publish your written work.
This university has strongly encouraged students to attend classes in which they are enrolled and to be active participants in them. The availability of commercial notes might serve to reduce the incentive of students to do so. It is your right as a faculty member to determine whether the taking of notes for this commercial venture will be allowed. If you choose to give a commercial note taking venture the right to take notes in your class for resale, do so in writing in order to avoid misunderstandings. Should you permit such note taking and choose to inform your students of the availability of these notes, you should take care to avoid any conflict of interest or appearance of conflict of interest when you do so.
If after having taken these steps, you feel your copyright rights are being infringed, please be aware that it is the right of the individual faculty member, as the owner of the copyright, to pursue legal action.
