{"id":51371,"date":"2020-03-12T00:00:53","date_gmt":"2020-03-12T07:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=51371"},"modified":"2020-03-11T21:48:06","modified_gmt":"2020-03-12T04:48:06","slug":"pirate-universities-have-stolen-lecturers-performers-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/pirate-universities-have-stolen-lecturers-performers-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"Pirate universities have stolen lecturers\u2019 performers\u2019 rights"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

As the latest wave of strikes at UK universities has unfolded over the past four weeks, the question has once again been raised of whether the impact on students \u2013 and, hence, the efficacy of the industrial action \u2013 could be minimised<\/a> by simply showing them recordings of absent academics\u2019 lectures from previous years.<\/p>\n

That could become an even more pressing issue if the coronavirus forces the shuttering of UK lecture theatres, as it has in China, Singapore, Italy and elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Many universities require their staff to record their lectures and make the recordings available to students. Some academics complain that this practice is destroying students\u2019 incentive to attend the live lecture even on a normal working day. But that isn\u2019t the only problem. It is also quite possibly illegal.<\/p>\n

Having spent some time in the music industry, I have a little knowledge of copyright. That is why I think UK universities are pulling a fast one by claiming ownership of their staff\u2019s recorded lectures. Worse still, academics are letting them get away with it.<\/p>\n

Take my own employer\u2019s policy. In an internal communication, the University of Nottingham declares that \u201call rights in materials created by the lecturer as part of the normal course of their employment, including the content of the lectures and course materials, belong to the university.\u201d At first glance, that would seem to adhere to advice provided by Jisc \u2013 the sector-owned digital learning body \u2013 which argues that employers (universities) have an automatic right to any material produced by their employees (lecturers) in the course of their employment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere an employee creates a literary, dramatic, musical, artistic work, or a film work, in the course of their employment, the default position in law is that copyright in the work will belong to the employer, unless there is a contract or agreement to the contrary,\u201d the guidance<\/a> states, citing the 1998 Copyright, Design and Patents Act.<\/p>\n

The important bit for us, though, begins with the addition that this principle does not apply to sound recordings, and that \u201cwhere a lecturer makes an audio recording of the lecture for his\/her own purposes, the copyright in the sound recording will probably be owned by the lecturer, not the employer\u201d.<\/p>\n

That exception may seem odd to some observers and Jisc doesn\u2019t explain it. But the reason that it doesn\u2019t apply to sound recordings is because copyright is mostly designed for the music industry.<\/p>\n

In that world, there is a strict division between a copyright (the ownership to the intellectual property of a song \u2013 the words and chords \u2013 usually owned by a music publisher), mechanical rights (the right to make a sound recording of a copyrighted song and sell it, owned by the record company) and performing rights (the right of the performer over their performance of copyrighted material, which includes both actual live involvement in a production and any recording, film or broadcast of a performance). Hence, Michael Jackson could famously buy the copyright to the Beatles\u2019 back catalogue, but that doesn\u2019t mean he owned every live recording the band ever made.<\/p>\n

Similarly, a university can claim copyright to the intellectual property of a lecture (the words and visual materials produced by a lecturer in the course of their employment) but it cannot claim an automatic right to use the performance: the lecture recording. As Jisc notes, a \u201cperformer\u2019s rights\u2026although related to copyright, exist quite separately\u201d and \u201cthe performer is the first owner of the performance, not the employer\u201d.<\/p>\n

This means that an employer cannot claim automatic ownership of performances. As Jisc explains, a performer\u2019s rights \u201ccan be licensed or\u2026assigned (transferred) to another party\u201d. But such licences and agreements should be separate documents, rather than being incorporated into employment contracts. An academic job description might involve performing, but that does not mean that our employers own our performing rights.<\/p>\n

However, I\u2019ve looked at the publicly available policies at several institutions and have seen no attempt to obtain such permission. Rather, there is typically a policy kindly allowing staff to opt out of automatically giving away their performers\u2019 rights. But this is not the same as asking permission to use performance rights. Look at the University of Leicester\u2019s policy<\/a>. There is no mention at all of performers\u2019 rights, even in the section named \u201cperformance rights\u201d. It just says: \u201cThe university owns the intellectual property, including copyright of all recordings.\u201d<\/p>\n

My fellow academics, this is highly questionable, if not illegal. We cannot be compelled to grant our performers\u2019 rights to our employer because we are staff. They exist separately from our employment contract and \u2013 as Jisc says \u2013 cannot be bundled together with it. We own them.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t suppose anyone will object if lecture recordings are used during coronavirus outbreaks. But universities that use them against lecturers\u2019 wishes are turning themselves into bootleggers who would sneak into concerts, record Bob Dylan and then sell the recordings without his permission. The times may be a-changin\u2019 when it comes to edtech, but the law on intellectual property remains the same. It is time to give us our performers\u2019 rights back.<\/p>\n

Author Bio:<\/strong><\/em>Robert Cluley is an\u00a0Associate Professor at\u00a0Nottingham University Business School.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the latest wave of strikes at UK universities has unfolded over the past four weeks, the question has once again been raised of whether the impact on students \u2013 and, hence, the efficacy of the industrial action \u2013 could be minimised by simply showing them recordings of absent academics\u2019 lectures from previous years. That […]\n… learn more→<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":51372,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[351582],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-51371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-higher-education","tag-performers-rights"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPirate universities have stolen lecturers\u2019 performers\u2019 rights - World leading higher education information and services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/pirate-universities-have-stolen-lecturers-performers-rights\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pirate universities have stolen lecturers\u2019 performers\u2019 rights - World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As the latest wave of strikes at UK universities has unfolded over the past four weeks, the question has once again been raised of whether the impact on students \u2013 and, hence, the efficacy of the industrial action \u2013 could be minimised by simply showing them recordings of absent academics\u2019 lectures from previous years. 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