APPENDIX E: "COPYRIGHT POLICY" AND "COPYRIGHT POLICY PROCEDURES"

I. INTRODUCTION

This policy defines and establishes the respective rights and obligations of University faculty, students, and staff regarding copyrightable works made by them. Certain terms used in this policy are defined in Section V.

II. OWNERSHIP OF WORKS

A. Authored by University Staff In accordance with the Federal Copyright Act of 1976, works developed by University staff within the scope of their employment are the property of the University. B. Authored by University Faculty All copyrightable works developed by faculty members on their own initiative shall be the property of such faculty members, except as follows: 1. Specific Assignments The University owns the copyright and works produced pursuant to specific assignments or specific duties that are not connected with normal teaching, scholarship, research or artistic endeavors. The authoring of catalogue or promotional materials is an example of such an assignment. 2. Special Projects The University owns the copyright for works created as special projects. 3. TV Lecture Series When a faculty member agrees to the University's request to have his or her lectures videotaped for off-campus broadcast or to have them broadcast live via University telecommunications facilities, the programs will be jointly owned and copyrighted by the faculty member and the University. 4. Works Developed in the Course of Assigned Duties or Conducted Wholly or Significantly Through the Use of General Funds The University owns works developed in the course of assigned duties or developed wholly or significantly through the use of general funds. C. Authored by Students Copyrightable works, including dissertations, developed in connection with course work by students who are not University employees are deemed to belong to the student. However, the University may claim copyright ownership of a work when extraordinary use of University facilities, personnel, or resources is made in the development of the materials, especially when unrelated to coursework.

III. ROYALTY ALLOCATION

A. When the University retains ownership of a work authored by a faculty member, the University will execute an agreement with the faculty member providing for a sharing of net proceeds from the commercialization of the work in a manner reflecting proportionately the relative contributions of the author and the University. Proceeds will continue to the faculty member after separation from the University or to the faculty member's estate upon his or her death. Such works may be used within the University without royalty to the author, but the University may agree to compensate the author for special cases of internal use. If more than one faculty member is an author of a work or a part thereof, the share of proceeds which this paragraph allocates to the author will be shared among such co-authors. B. The faculty author of a work, the ownership of which is retained by the University, shall warrant to the University that the work is original and that to the best of his or her knowledge the work does not infringe on any copyrights of others, does not contain libelous matter, and does not contain any material improperly invading the privacy of others.

IV. AUTHORITY TO ACT FOR THE UNIVERSITY

The Board has adopted initial procedures to implement this policy. The President may make changes in such procedures. The President or his designee shall report to the Board on University copyright activities, including, but not limited to any changes in the procedures and a list of copyrightable works in which the University has claimed an interest, at the November meeting of the Board each year beginning in l986.

V. DEFINITIONS

A. Author or Authors mean the individual faculty member or members who devise the particular form of part or all of a copyrightable work. B. Board means the Board of Visitors of George Mason University. C. Commercialization means sales of copyrights and contracts with outside agencies providing for royalties or other lease arrangements based on copyrights. D. Faculty has the same meaning as in the current George Mason University Faculty Handbook. For the purpose of this policy statement, administrative faculty are considered "staff" when they are fulfilling their administrative roles and "faculty" when they are carrying out their duties as regular faculty members. E. President means the President of George Mason University. F. Proceeds means the net remaining after deduction of unreimbursed development costs incurred and the expenses of marketing, including cost of advertising, sales, distribution, and related overhead costs. G. Special Projects are activities to which the University makes a substantial contribution of funds, personnel, facilities, services, or reduction of workload to the author. What constitutes a "substantial contribution" for purposes of this definition must be decided on a case by case basis. These are frequently, but not always, similar to projects supported by outside sponsors, who from time to time include in their grants or contracts, terms that claim ownership of the copyright by the sponsor or require publication without copyright. The University will retain an interest in any copyrightable work produced by a Faculty member, staff member or student under contract with a third party if the University makes a substantial contribution notwithstanding any contract terms to the contrary. Funds and facilities provided by outside sponsors which are administered and controlled by the University shall be considered to be "funds" and "facilities" contributed by the University for the purposes of this definition. Special projects will be frequently, but not always, characterized by released time to the author or authors, by the substantial use of University facilities, and/or by the contribution of University employees other than clerk and secretarial employees. Examples of such substantial University contributions are the use of one or several University employees in the preparation or validation of teaching or testing materials, the participation of University employees as researchers on a project, and a University-sponsored conference which is funded by the University with the participants being paid for or contributing their papers or presentations and a faculty member compiling and editing the proceedings. H. Staff means all employees of the University other than faculty. I. Work or works are those products for which copyright protection is provided by the Federal Copyright Act of 1976. This statute covers "original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression, now known or later developed, from which they can be perceived, reproduced or otherwise communicated." Copyright protection does not "extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery...described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work." Works may be literary, dramatic, musical, choreographic, artistic, scientific, and so forth. They may be fixed in the form of writing, drawing, maps, photographs, paintings, sculptures, motion pictures, sound recordings, and so forth. J. University means George Mason University. K. Assigned Duty is narrower than "scope of employment," and is an undertaking of a task or project as a result of a specific request or direction. A general obligation to do research, even if it results in a specific end product such as a vaccine, a published article, or a computer program, or to produce scholarly publications, is not a specific request or direction and hence is not an assigned duty. In contrast, an obligation to develop a particular vaccine or write a particular article or produce a particular computer program is a specific request or direction and is therefore an assigned duty. L. Significant Use of General Funds and the phrase "developed wholly or significantly through the use of general funds," mean that general funds provided over half of the identifiable resources used to develop a particular intellectual property, and exceeded $10,000.00. A reasonable cost should be assigned to those resources for which a cost figure is not readily available, such as salary, support staff, and other equipment and resources dedicated to the creator's efforts. Resources such as libraries that are available to employees generally should not be counted in the assessment of the use of general funds. 7/30/87 Copyright Policy Procedures

I. INTRODUCTION

These procedures implement the Copyright Policy established by the Board of Visitors. Certain terms used in these procedures are defined in Section V of the Copyright Policy.

II. AUTHORITY TO ACT FOR THE PRESIDENT

The authority to act for the President in all matters involving intellectual property including copyrights and patents, including the making of contracts and the waiving or assigning of University rights is hereby delegated to the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs and Research ("The Vice Provost").

III. UNIVERSITY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY COMMITTEE

The Vice Provost will be advised by a University Intellectual Property Committee ("the Committee") elected by the Research Advisory Committee. The Committee will consist of five faculty members actively involved in intellectual property matters. The Vice Provost will chair the Committee and will be a non-voting participant in all Committee deliberations. All Committee terms are rotating for three years; the members may be reappointed. The Committee's duties will include: A. To recommend whether the University has a proprietary interest in a faculty-authored work, and, if so, to what extent, should the faculty authors and the Vice Provost disagree; B. To recommend the relative shares in the work of faculty co-authors, should the faculty co-authors and the Vice Provost disagree; C. To recommend whether to apply for a copyright and/or market the work, should the faculty authors and the Vice Provost disagree; D. To make recommendations on matters of obsolescence as provided in Section VII, below, should the faculty authors and the Vice Provost disagree; and E. To make recommendations on all matters pertaining to copyright not resolved by this procedure statement and to recommend modifications of the Copyright Policy that may be appropriate.

IV. PROCEDURE FOR IDENTIFYING OWNERSHIP OF COPYRIGHTS

Each faculty member shall report to his or her chair any projects that might be subject to copyright. The chair of each department (or the Dean in the case of those schools/colleges without a departmental structure) in consultation with the collegiate dean shall forward a list of projects possibly subject to copyright to the Vice Provost with a recommendation concerning which items the University may wish to claim. The Vice Provost, following any necessary consultation with the Intellectual Property Committee, shall prepare a final recommendation for the President regarding University interests. If the President waives the University rights to a project, then so long as that project does not alter substantially in scope, the University will have no later claim. This process shall be completed within 90 days following the faculty member's report.

V. RIGHTS WITH OUTSIDE AGENCIES

Terms of a grant from or contract with an outside agency allocating copyrights or specifying a right to require publication without copyright are binding on the faculty author and the University, only if contract or grant is approved by the University in advance.

VI. ROYALTY ALLOCATION

In the usual case where a copyright is owned by the University and net proceeds from royalties are to be shared with the author(s), an appropriate sharing of these proceeds would be as follows: A. The first $1,000 of proceeds to the author; B. Half of the proceeds above $1,000 to the author and the other half to the University. If more than one faculty member is an author of a work or a part thereof, the share of proceeds which this paragraph allocates to the author will be shared among such co-authors as they shall determine. In cases where the University incurs litigation costs in defending the copyright against infringement, such costs will be deducted from income before any royalties are distributed. If such costs are incurred after the distribution of royalties have commenced, the author will be held harmless for any royalties already received.

VII. USE OF WORKS COPYRIGHTED BY THE UNIVERSITY

The University will make all reasonable efforts to consult with the author of a work, the copyright of which vests in the University, before any use is made of the work within the University or any license for its use outside the University is granted. If the University fails to make progress toward obtaining a copyright (and marketing such copyright) of a faculty-authored work owned by the University within a period of 18 months, the faculty member may formally make a written request to the University Intellectual Property Committee, that the ownership of the materials pass to the author. Faculty-authored works owned by the University may be reviewed by the author after five years for obsolescence. If he considers the materials to be obsolete, he has the right to refer the matter to the Vice Provost, with recommendation for disposal of the material. 8/23/89