For some time, the issue of open source software and other forms of "community license," including things like Creative Commons and, in our case, the eXtension contributor and institutional agreements, has been relatively unimportant for UC. Recently, all that has changed. For one thing, there are a number of major projects involving open source software that are aimed at major business and educational computer systems. At UC Davis, the "Smart Site" learning system for course support and other stuff is based on Sakai, an open source learning management system. Also, DaFIS, the financial system, is migrating towards a platform based on Kuali, another open source system.
In addition, faculty researchers are buildling complex high performance computing systems based on open source cluster computing software and writing complex software for their research that may be subject to the license terms of the open source platforms it runs on. This is new territory for copyright and intellectual property at UC and for higher ed everywhere.
Across the UC IT environment, there is a need to update big systems like payroll and the human resources information system (HRIS). Increasingly, higher education across the country along with UC are looking to shared systems development, mostly in open source environnments.
I think we'll see pretty quick movement towards a much more complex copyright and intellectual property environment in UC and guess what that means? Things aren't going to get any simpler, that's for sure.
Bob Sams
rwsams@ucdavis.edu
At least once a week, I get a question about posting publications on the web. I wish these questions were easy to answer and straightforward, but often that is not the case.
However, in the case of ANR numbered publications that are printed, please ask us first. We don't want to inhibit the distribution of information, but we also have a responsibility to manage our inventory responsibly. Posting publications to the web can have unanticipated financial implications that should be considered in advance.
Suppose ANR Communication Services is about to negotiate a significant sale with an agency or wholesaler and the publication suddenly appears for free on the web.
I'd be happy to help with your questions about posting to the web. In the case of numbered ANR publications in print, please contact me in advance.
Thanks,
Bob Sams rwsams@ucdavis.edu
Legal and policy elements of creating copyrightable educational materials as part of your cooperative extension program are getting more complicated. More cooperators, more agreements, funding arrangements and cost recovery are all things that can come back and bite you.
In addition, while we all have to follow UC policy, there can be differences between campus and ANR procedures.
ANR Communication Services can help you plan ahead and avoid having to fix projects where key issues of copyright and other matters have not been adequately considered. Fixing these issues later can be a lot of work at best and significant added costs at worst.
Feel free to contact me early in your planning. I may not have the answer, but I can point you to someone who does.
Bob Sams
While the situation is a little different within ANR, the UCD Policy and Procedure Manual section 250-04 has the core University policy references and links relating to copyright within UC.
Here's that link.
http://manuals.ucdavis.edu/ppm/250/250-04.htm
ANR is working on a new section for the ANR Administrative Handbook, but it isn't ready for general consumption yet.
Please contact me if you have questions about how UC policy applies to materials produced as part of your cooperative extension program appointment.
Bob Sams rwsams@ucdavis.edu
A number of questions have come up recently about the deceptively simple term "public domain." In the old days, cooperative extension publications were often (but not always) distributed with no restrictions on duplication and no formal statement of copyright. Some folks have said that they were in the public domain.
That term really doesn't apply to what we do in ANR anymore. Materials produced in the course of your program assignment are copyrighted by the Regents of the University of California. Assuming that what you've done is copyrightable in the first place, (your grocery list is not!) the copyright exists from the moment the work is set down in some fixed form. If you have an idea for an educational video at lunch with a colleague and you write the creative script for the opening scene on a napkin, the copyright exists.
Simple answer? The term public domain has little relevance to what we do.
On the other hand, copyright has huge relevance and is a complex topic. There is an excellent resource with lots of links at the UC Davis copyright web site at http://ucanr.org/ucdcopyright .
Also, help is available from my office and from our most generous colleague, Jan Carmikle in UCD Innovation Access. (copyright@ucdavis.edu)
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