The best way of handling posts deletion requests

Community Building
17

If the author(s) are employees of the university. It would basically be “work made for hire”:

  1. Ownership of copyright
    (a) Initial Ownership.—Copyright in a work protected under this title vests initially in the author or authors of the work. The authors of a joint work are coowners of copyright in the work.
    (b) Works Made for Hire.—In the case of a work made for hire, the employer or other person for whom the work was prepared is considered the author for purposes of this title, and, unless the parties have expressly agreed otherwise in a written instrument signed by them, owns all of the rights comprised in the copyright.
    (c) Contributions to Collective Works…
    Source: Chapter 2 - Circular 92 | U.S. Copyright Office

Otherwise, no, I highly doubt the claims you’re making here. Or you would please need to back these statements up. I looked up the policies of several US universities and was unable to find anthing saying what you allege. Quite the contrary. For example:

When does the University own IP?
In most cases, students who are not employed by UC own their original academic work. Under law and policy, UC owns IP made by UC employees in the course and scope of their work. When University gift/grant/contract funds, resources, or research facilities are used, UC may also own the resulting IP.
Source: Guide to Intellectual Property as a Student at the University of California | UCOP

You can have a look at these answers on researchgate: https://www.researchgate.net/post/Who_owns_the_intellectual_property_in_the_published_article

That was more the spirit of the question, indeed. What would be the correct and respectful way to handle things. Legally, I’m quite convinced what many forum owners want to do isn’t good. In most jurisdictions. They throw in some “beliefs” here and there, but deep down, they know it, reason why the “no legal advice” excuse popped up immediately in this very topic. All while legal advice to be carful about what to not say has directly been provided. But besides legal aspects, what would you want to do to treat your users well?

Anyway, this isn’t the place to discuss any of it.

1 Like