Maryland Proposal to Claim Copyright on Student/Teacher Work

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A proposal recently floated by the Prince George's County Board of Education would give them the copyright to anything created by teachers, students and employees before, during and after school hours. Read more: www.foxnews.com...

Yet another reason I am going to home-school my daughter...
From the way I see it...this is nothing but a power grab by the state.
Its an asinine proposal that I hope gets some people FIRED for even thinking up...

I don't think we will be that lucky though...and they will go back to the drawing board to propose something even more asinine in the future.

The school-system and government are really getting tiring...ridiculous proposal after ridiculous proposal one right after the other in a shot-gun effect attempt at hopefully sneaking one past the exhausted parents/people constantly trying to keep these totalitarian policies at bay...

Couple this with the new mental health screening proposal for public, home-schooled children and its a tireless battle to protect our kids from power hungry psychos in positions of "authority"...

Although I don't think this will pass and will be fought off...they will go back to the drawing board and redesign and reword it until its disguised enough to slip though...its been done with nearly EVERY proposal that has been fought off....SOPA etc...

Anyone else getting tired of constantly having to deal with this absurdity?

schools are really starting to have so many issues its not even funny.. I am all for home schooling but my GF is totally against it because she thinks her daughter wouldn't get the social skills and friends at school..

But its easy to make friends and maybe rather then going to school to hang out with your friends she would be better off learning at home and then doing chores which is what my idea of an education would be..

She wants a cell phone and I told her to walk around to all the neighbors houses and ask them to do chores and clean for $ if she can pay the bill she can have it.

As soon as she is 15 and she can start a legal job then she will be working after school to save for her first car.

Originally posted by dc4lifeskater
schools are really starting to have so many issues its not even funny.. I am all for home schooling but my GF is totally against it because she thinks her daughter wouldn't get the social skills and friends at school..

But its easy to make friends and maybe rather then going to school to hang out with your friends she would be better off learning at home and then doing chores which is what my idea of an education would be..

She wants a cell phone and I told her to walk around to all the neighbors houses and ask them to do chores and clean for $ if she can pay the bill she can have it.

As soon as she is 15 and she can start a legal job then she will be working after school to save for her first car.

Pretty much how my childhood went...I wasn't home-schooled but I mowed lawns and did misc yard-work for people in the summer shoveled driveways in the winter...saved enough to get my first car...which my parents were kind enough to match me on.

I think the social aspect of school is important which is why I'll encourage my daughter to pick a school of her choice to participate in extra-curricular activities but the brunt of the schooling/discipline will be done by me because every day I find myself in more and more disagreement with the school system and the government...

That and I don't want the state and school system to exploit my daughters creative ability through force...which is exactly what the OP proposal is...

Originally posted by dc4lifeskater

But its easy to make friends

On what planet?

You may have found it easy to make friends. there are many who don't. And especially if their parents or guardians are conspiracy theorists.

O.o

So, on my day off of school, I write down and idea for a safety feature for a gun or car and the school would automatically own it? that's stupid.

The "social aspect" of public schooling is the worst part, not something to be held up as justification against home schooling. Public schools "socialize" our children into being materialistic narcissist zombies--superconsumers unquestioningly loyal to both state and corporation.

If my kid turns out "weird" because he's home-schooled, that's a good thing. Take a long, hard look at "normal". Is that what you want your kid to be? Send him to a public school then.

reply to post by Sly1one


So they want to make money off of Student's ideas ?

Do they have no shame ?

This is really crossing lines of morality.

Up to some point I agree that the people responsible for something should get a fair share for their products

Although I personally take as a real product a chapter, a book, program, movie, song. Something that is finalised. As the technology advances and time goes on, ideas start to surface again and new ideas tend to be more similar. When some sentences in the books are similar by coincide, someone singing some popsong in front friends or some fragment of the code is similar, it may just be coincidence. That should not go under such law as often the materials of both authors are their own ideas, although one of them published their work before the other guy. It just overcomplicates everything.

Putting copyright laws on teacher/student work is simply absurd and some people will definetely start to overuse it.

I was a commercial artist, worked for 10 years for an advertising company. Everything I did while on the clock was 'work for hire' and they owned the copyright....a common practice.

I had to ask their permission to exhibit a painting that had been used as a background for an ad they ran. They refused.

reply to post by Sly1one


I think it's about money.

There's a website where you can purchase lesson plans nc activities. If the school owns your work, thn they could potentially sell it.

I don't know the legalities, but this is despicable.

Not sure how i feel about this.

On the one hand, it has been ruled that high school students do not have a guaranteed right to total free speech.

On the other hand, a person retains the copyright to every work he or she creates unless one relinquishes that right through employer contract etc.

While high school publications are generally controlled (key word controlled) by the school system (unlike college publications, which are generally independent of the schools), this provision in the article is interesting:

A draft of the policy states that, “Works created by employees and/or students specifically for use by the Prince George’s County Public Schools or a specific school or department within PGCPS, are properties of the Board of Education even if created on the employee’s or student’s time and with use of their materials.”

Emphasis added.

It appears that if the works are created FOR USE by the school, they retain the copyright, which is similar to work for hire: you create a work for a company (the company's use) and they retain the copyright simply because, contractually, you created it FOR them, which this seems to imply.

However, because

“The Board pulled the policy because it was overly broad.”

seems to rightfully indicate that the proposed policy i...overbroad, full of loopholes, and does not properly address the concerns of those involved.

If one simply creates a work while in school one should legally and constitutionally retain the copyright, but if one knowingly creates a work for the school whereupon the school retains copyright, i don't see what the outrage is.

Because of the wording i would HOPE that this doesn't apply to say, a student writing an essay for class and losing copyright simply because it was created during while the student was a student and during school hours...but who knows.

I don't defend what this school is doing at all, but as far as I'm aware, most universities already do this, so they're just following suit with the norm. I know my university already can do this, although in practice I'm not sure if they ever exercise the right to it. I've heard some second and third hand stories about universities stealing people's work, but I don't know if any of them are true.