Policy of Intellectual Property in Higher Education: Principles for Authorisation of Scholarly Works
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Abstract
New information and communication technologies not only open new opportunities for higher education institutions to access, create and deliver knowledge but also bring new challenges to new as well as old practices. While innovative technological applications are becoming commonplace, relations of intellectual property concerned with the creation, authorisation and usage of scholarly works are far from clear in an institution of higher education.
Created for educational purposes such scholarly works usually include not only printed books and manuscripts of notes but also digital conversations of images, multimedia composite works, broadcast, telecast, audio-cassettes, video-cassettes and other tangible media provided in the forms of teaching modules and packages. Such works are more often created not by a single professor, rather by a team of experts. They often do not only compile the materials, but also become publishers. A team involves experts from several institutions rather than from a single one. Their work is often funded financially and supported otherwise by several institutions, too. In an institution of higher education, the situation obviously requires a transparent policy of intellectual property if academic community truly cares not only about incentives for scientific creativity and maintenance of wide access to knowledge but also about just institutional relations.
This article discusses philosophical, legal as well as institutional issues on intellectual property policy formation and implementation. Particular attention is drawn to allocation and exercise of copyrights, the conditions of transparent process concerning authorisation of scholarly works created for educational purposes in a contemporary Lithuanian university. The discussion aims at revealing trustworthy principles as regards not only practical processes of authorisation of scholarly works but also intellectual property policy formation and implementation.
The article consists of three parts. They are split into smaller sections. The first part provides a framework on the types of institutional policy as regards intellectual property. Based on foreign experience the framework emphasises that at least seven types of issues have to be addressed in a university while trying to develop a transparent policy of intellectual property. These are the types of issues regarded with the rules and measures of 1) authorisation and 2) fair use of scholarly works, 3) protection of copyrights, 4) licence market, 5) quality assurance of works created, 6) royalties and compensatory conditions, 7) institutional management mechanisms of intellectual property policy applied and followed in a university. It is emphasised that the framework calls for a complex approach to the policy of intellectual property.
The second part of the article focuses on philosophical and legal issues. Firstly, it analyses the idea of higher education mission that of a permanent process of knowledge creation. While discussing two fundamental conditions important for the process of knowledge creation, it reveals inescapable practical paradoxes between the institutional intentions to strive for creative incentives and wide access to knowledge. It argues that it is possible to transcend the paradoxes by drawing attention to legal possibilities of rational choice and the agreements that serve different academic needs.
Therefore, secondly, the article analyses the concept of intellectual property, describes international conventions and legal acts regulating intellectual property relations in Lithuania and abroad, presents the analysis of the concept of copyrights regulated by the Law on Copyright and Related Rights in Lithuania. The analysis allows to emphasise the importance of moral and economic legal rights in academic community. It also allows to state that legal provisions regulating the relations of intellectual property in Lithuania while providing for the possibilities of written agreements create favourable conditions for the further development of sharing copyrights to scholarly works based on the principles of balanced interests.
Then, thirdly, basing on the provisions of the same law the article describes five legal models that the process of sharing of copyrights may be based upon. These are the theoretical models of the creator’s, leader’s, employer’s, producer’s rights, and the model of complex agreement. The models make evident an issue of institutional rational choice concerned with the copyright sharing process.
Finally, the third part of the article presents analysis of five cases on mono-creative and multi-creative scholarly works, especially those of educational use. Overall, other principles discussed being equal, the analysis leads to a conclusion that the policy of intellectual property in a university has to be based on at least five criteria predetermined by particular contextual cases. These must be the criteria as follows: 1) the source of creative initiative; 2) the original contribution; 3) the amount and type of institutional managerial services; 4) the amount and type of institutional material and intellectual assistance; and 5) the type of institutional remuneration or compensation for a creative work.
The article argues that the principles and criteria may be applied both in the development of institutional rules by which the process of sharing economic rights may be directed as well as in the formation and application of standardised institutional agreements that lay the core of institutional relations as regards policy of intellectual property.
Created for educational purposes such scholarly works usually include not only printed books and manuscripts of notes but also digital conversations of images, multimedia composite works, broadcast, telecast, audio-cassettes, video-cassettes and other tangible media provided in the forms of teaching modules and packages. Such works are more often created not by a single professor, rather by a team of experts. They often do not only compile the materials, but also become publishers. A team involves experts from several institutions rather than from a single one. Their work is often funded financially and supported otherwise by several institutions, too. In an institution of higher education, the situation obviously requires a transparent policy of intellectual property if academic community truly cares not only about incentives for scientific creativity and maintenance of wide access to knowledge but also about just institutional relations.
This article discusses philosophical, legal as well as institutional issues on intellectual property policy formation and implementation. Particular attention is drawn to allocation and exercise of copyrights, the conditions of transparent process concerning authorisation of scholarly works created for educational purposes in a contemporary Lithuanian university. The discussion aims at revealing trustworthy principles as regards not only practical processes of authorisation of scholarly works but also intellectual property policy formation and implementation.
The article consists of three parts. They are split into smaller sections. The first part provides a framework on the types of institutional policy as regards intellectual property. Based on foreign experience the framework emphasises that at least seven types of issues have to be addressed in a university while trying to develop a transparent policy of intellectual property. These are the types of issues regarded with the rules and measures of 1) authorisation and 2) fair use of scholarly works, 3) protection of copyrights, 4) licence market, 5) quality assurance of works created, 6) royalties and compensatory conditions, 7) institutional management mechanisms of intellectual property policy applied and followed in a university. It is emphasised that the framework calls for a complex approach to the policy of intellectual property.
The second part of the article focuses on philosophical and legal issues. Firstly, it analyses the idea of higher education mission that of a permanent process of knowledge creation. While discussing two fundamental conditions important for the process of knowledge creation, it reveals inescapable practical paradoxes between the institutional intentions to strive for creative incentives and wide access to knowledge. It argues that it is possible to transcend the paradoxes by drawing attention to legal possibilities of rational choice and the agreements that serve different academic needs.
Therefore, secondly, the article analyses the concept of intellectual property, describes international conventions and legal acts regulating intellectual property relations in Lithuania and abroad, presents the analysis of the concept of copyrights regulated by the Law on Copyright and Related Rights in Lithuania. The analysis allows to emphasise the importance of moral and economic legal rights in academic community. It also allows to state that legal provisions regulating the relations of intellectual property in Lithuania while providing for the possibilities of written agreements create favourable conditions for the further development of sharing copyrights to scholarly works based on the principles of balanced interests.
Then, thirdly, basing on the provisions of the same law the article describes five legal models that the process of sharing of copyrights may be based upon. These are the theoretical models of the creator’s, leader’s, employer’s, producer’s rights, and the model of complex agreement. The models make evident an issue of institutional rational choice concerned with the copyright sharing process.
Finally, the third part of the article presents analysis of five cases on mono-creative and multi-creative scholarly works, especially those of educational use. Overall, other principles discussed being equal, the analysis leads to a conclusion that the policy of intellectual property in a university has to be based on at least five criteria predetermined by particular contextual cases. These must be the criteria as follows: 1) the source of creative initiative; 2) the original contribution; 3) the amount and type of institutional managerial services; 4) the amount and type of institutional material and intellectual assistance; and 5) the type of institutional remuneration or compensation for a creative work.
The article argues that the principles and criteria may be applied both in the development of institutional rules by which the process of sharing economic rights may be directed as well as in the formation and application of standardised institutional agreements that lay the core of institutional relations as regards policy of intellectual property.
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Authors retain copyright of their work, with first publication rights granted to the Association for Learning Technology.
Please see Copyright and Licence Agreement for further details.
