Correction Appended
A University of Florida professor's lawsuit against the owner of a Web site that sells class notes has shed light on a business that some believe profits from copyright infringement.
Michael Moulton, a professor in the university's wildlife ecology department, along with e-textbook publisher Faulkner Press, are suing the owner of Einstein's Notes for violations to the copyright he claims protects the lectures he gives in class - lectures that he claims are his intellectual property, according to Wired.com, an online magazine that reports on technology news.
Einstein's Notes, which operates online as HowIgotAnA.com, pays students for the notes they take in class and resells them in the form of "study kits" on the Internet.
Nathan Price, special assistant to AU's provost, said this sort of business is wrong.
"Selling notes is profiting off of someone else's work - a professor's," he said. "The buyer of notes cheapens his or her education."
However, he said that people could legitimately ask for note-taking services as a part of disability accommodations.
A court rejected a similar lawsuit filed against A-Plus Notes in 1996. However, the suit against Einstein's Notes may be more successful because Moulton recorded his lectures, registered the copyrights and had the university clear his activities, Wired.com reported.
If a court requires Einstein's Notes to pay back profits made from its study guides or forces the company to change business ventures, the legal precedent would affect numerous other businesses - including CliffsNotes, which sells summaries of copyrighted literature, according to Wired.com.
Pat Aufderheide, director of the School of Communication's Center for Social Media, said she has worked extensively with copyright issues and said that all fixed expression, including e-mails, is considered copyrighted.
"AU does not own any of the creative product of the professors," she said.
Aufderheide said that since "copyright is default," the work of professors does technically belong to them. She, for example, did not have to seek AU's permission to use her own lecture notes in writing her book because the material was legally hers.
Chris Grochowski, a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences, said he thinks it's ridiculous for professors to copyright their lectures.
"It's not illegal to go and sit in on classes," he said.
Grochowski said he also believes that Web sites should not profit from students' notes.
"Some schools are putting out free podcasts of entire lectures, which aren't going to negatively affect my education, but for people who can't afford an education at all, it'll still give them the opportunity to get it online," he said.
Price said students should do their own work and that the university's Academic Integrity Code "specifically limit[s] or restrict[s] collaboration."
"Sharing notes should be seen in that context," he said.
Vivian Graubard, a freshman in the Kogod School of Business, said students should not make a profit from sharing notes.
"There's nothing wrong with giving notes away for free," Graubard said. "It would be the same as giving someone notes if they were sick and missed class."
Correction: In "UF sues prof sues Web site over copyright," Special Assistant to the Provost Nathan Price's final quote was misleading. Although the Academic Integrity Code prohibits unlawful collaboration, it does not preclude students from sharing class notes; in fact, the university encourages this kind of collaboration, according to Price.
