A copyright policy prepared by a Provostial faculty committee and unanimously adopted by the University Senate now goes to the Trustees for approval. The policy was endorsed by three Senate committees--Faculty Affairs, Education and Executive--and by the student caucus. To view the policy in its entirety, members of the Columbia community can visit the Provost's online site at http://www.columbia.edu/cu/provost/.

PREAMBLE TO THE COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY COPYRIGHT POLICY

The central mission of Columbia University is to create, preserve, and disseminate knowledge through teaching and research. The community of scholars at Columbia has determined and established norms and values for the conduct of scholarly and scientific work that have evolved over the long history of the University.

Faculty at the University must be free to choose and pursue areas of study and concentration without interference, to share the results of their intellectual efforts with colleagues and students, to use and disseminate their own creations, and to take their created works with them should they leave the University.¹

This copyright policy is intended to maintain those traditional norms and values that foster, in various ways, the open and free exchange of ideas and opinions. In this regard the policy formulated here follows a basic tenet of the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure of the American Association of University Professors:

Institutions of higher education are conducted for the common good and not to further the interest of either the individual teacher or the institution as a whole. The common good depends upon the free search for truth and its free expression.

The ongoing revolution in the use of information technology for the production and dissemination of knowledge enables members of the University community to create new forms or types of scholarly works, to communicate with current audiences with new types of materials, and to reach new audiences. The dramatic changes in information technologies and the ways in which they are employed provide an occasion to examine and clarify policy for copyright of works of scholarship produced at the University. This copyright policy statement delineates the rights and responsibilities of the University and its faculty, employees, students, and other members of the community.

By long-standing custom, faculty members hold copyright for books, monographs, articles, and similar works as delineated in the policy statement, whether distributed in print or electronically. This pattern will not change. This copyright policy retains and reasserts those rights. The use of new media technologies has changed the process of creation of intellectual works. Some of the resources (physical, financial, and human) needed to employ the new technologies are shared resources, provided by the University for the common benefit of all members of the University community. But, in many cases, the use of new media technologies requires increased involvement by the University in the form of financial support, expert services, equipment, and other facilities beyond the base level of support and common resources provided to faculty.

Columbia will hold rights in copyright to works of authorship that are created at the University by faculty, research staff, and others and that are supported by a direct allocation of University funds, are commissioned by the University, make substantial use of financial or logistical support from the University beyond the level of common resources provided to faculty, or are otherwise subject to contractual obligations. In those instances in which the University holds rights, faculty members can use the works involved for noncommercial purposes.

This policy recognizes that ownership of intellectual property and the sharing of economic returns from the licensing or commercialization of that property are two related yet distinct matters. Even when intellectual property rights are held by the University, revenues from new digital media and other property should be shared among its creators, including individual faculty, researchers, departments, schools, and the larger University. A description of the precise mechanism for distribution of revenues received from the intellectual property is appended to the policy statement and follows guidelines that have worked effectively for the sharing of revenues from patents.

Any beneficial returns to the University should be used for the common good in furtherance of its mission. Any share of revenues from intellectual property returned to the University should be invested visibly in the teaching and research enterprise of the University to seed new initiatives, enhance quality, and support quality academic programs including those that are not capable of reaping significant returns from their own created works.

This policy also is intended to strengthen current protection of the reputation of the University. Columbia's name deserves careful nurture and protection. As a general principle, the name of the University is not the property of any individual, department, or School. When the University's name is associated with a work of scholarship or other educational materials such as courses, the interests of the University and its community of scholars are affected and the University must exercise quality control with respect to the use of its name.

This is particularly true when intellectual property is created for use by other educational institutions or by for-profit organizations, including development of extensive courses to be offered on-line. Faculty members, deans, and other members of the University community who create courses or digitized content for other universities or for profit-making entities should be certain that all new collaborative agreements with outside entities receive approval of the University's President, who with regard to such agreements acts on behalf of the Trustees through the Offices of the Provost and Executive Vice Provost.

This copyright policy contains elements that intersect with other, existing policies at the University, most notably those that address conflict of interest, conflict of commitment, and disclosure of activities by members of the University community. The copyright policy does not replace those existing policies; rather it is meant to complement them.

It is inevitable that this copyright policy and its implementation will require interpretation and review. A standing committee, appointed by the Provost and including members of the University faculty and administration and a student officer, will be formed to provide such oversight and adjudicate disputes.

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY COPYRIGHT POLICY

This Copyright Policy² sets forth the rights and responsibilities of the University; its faculty; other employees; students with student officer appointments or other students or postdoctoral fellows who are collaborating with faculty members or researchers; and consultants. Copyright law protects the expression contained in works of authorship such as books, articles, memoranda, texts, computer programs, musical works, dramatic works, pictorial works, motion pictures and other audiovisual works, multimedia works, web pages and sound recordings.³

Section I of the Policy describes the various categories of such works of authorship and addresses issues of ownership and assertion of rights in connection with those works. Section II sets forth how the Policy will be administered and provides for the creation of a Copyright Policy Standing Committee made up of faculty members, a student officer, and academic administrators (with the majority consisting of faculty members who do not also have administrative appointments at the University) to address issues concerning the proper interpretation of the Policy and to adjudicate disputes between creators and the University on issues of copyright ownership.

Section II also provides for a disclosure mechanism for works covered by this Policy and describes the procedures for licensing of works subject to University ownership or control under this Policy. When the works are licensed commercially, revenues from such commercialization will be shared among creators, their research accounts, departments, schools and the central University in accordance with Section II and a Distribution Policy attached as Appendix B to this Policy.

1. Certain officers of research at the University share in these rights as well. (back to text)
2. This policy will be submitted to the Trustees at their June 2000 meeting. (back to text)
3. Definitions of copyright, copyrightable work, work for hire and related terms used in this Policy are set forth in Appendix A to this Policy. (back to text)