A faculty member from another institution has asked to use my materials for a course he is teaching. May I share my materials with him?
Answer
Lecture Notes are the personal property of the instructor giving him or her right to distribute, display or share materials freely with others. Sharing them with others is the option of the instructor. Materials that are copyrighted or belong to someone else are not yours to share without written permission.
A faculty member who wishes to ensure copyright protection of their lectures may attach a copyright notice to their class syllabus or any class handouts they have prepared provided their work is original. Examples of two copyright notices follow:
"<Instructor’s Name and Year> My lectures are protected by state common law and federal copyright law. They are my own original expression and I may elect to record them at the same time that I deliver them in order to secure protection. Whereas you are authorized to take notes in class thereby creating a derivative work from my lecture, the authorization extends only to making one set of notes for your own personal use and no other use. You are not authorized to record my lectures, to provide your notes to anyone else or to make any commercial use of them without express prior permission from me." Harper, Georgia (2001) “Ownership of Lectures” from The Copyright Crash Course Retrieved January 12, 2011.
“Copyright <Insert faculty members’ name here.> <Insert year here.> All federal and state copyrights in my lectures and course materials are reserved by me. You are authorized to take notes in class for your own personal use and for no other purpose. You are not authorized to record my lectures or to make any commercial use of them or to provide them to anyone else without my prior written permission.”