Commercial Internet notetaking companies have been soliciting students and faculty at Kansas State University at an increased rate during recent semesters. These companies hire students to take lecture notes which are then posted on the company's Internet site. For more information on the notetaker's debate, see the October 1, 1999 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education article, which features Richard Seaton, the University Attorney for Kansas State University.
As you are preparing materials for the beginning of the semester, you may wish to include a formal statement on your syllabus regarding student note taking for subsequent posting on commercial websites. You also may wish to orally draw attention on the first day of classes to any such statements that you include in your syllabus.
A possible statement you might wish to include on your syllabus is:
Copyright 2008 (Professor's name here) as to this syllabus and all lectures. During this course students are prohibited from selling notes to or being paid for taking notes by any person or commercial firm without the express written permission of the professor teaching this course.
In addition to giving the notice of copyright, you should take steps to assure that your lectures are fixed in a tangible medium of expression, and hence protectable under the copyright laws. For this purpose, you can make detailed lecture notes, use detailed overheads, slides, or on-line presentation slides, or tape record your lectures. These steps will strengthen your right to claim copyright in your lectures and will notify students of restrictions on their use. As the owner of the copyright, you have the option to take legal action to enforce it if you feel that it has been infringed.
Taking the above precautions will enhance your ability to do so. Although the rights are yours as an individual, the Provost has stated that the University Attorney's Office is available for consultation and advice on these matters.
If you have your own lecture notes posted on a website, you may wish to protect them with a copyright notice on the website. You can simply add the following to your information on the website: Copyright 2008 (Professor's name here).
You may be contacted by commercial firms who request your permission to have students take notes in your classes. It is totally at the discretion of each faculty member as to whether to grant permission for such activities. Some of these commercial firms desire to enter into a consulting agreement with individual faculty members. If that is the case, then, in order to comply with the Kansas State University Consulting Policy, any agreements entered into between commercial firms and individual faculty members should be officially reported to the department head and the appropriate forms submitted. To learn more about K-State's Conflict of Interest and Conflict of Time Commitment Policy and to access the online Consulting Request form, please visit K-State's Office of Academic Personnel.