Miami University is taking precautions against students posting and selling class notes online.
At the end of January, Miami's Office of General Counsel distributed a memo to administrators and faculty with instructions for faculty members to protect their class material and educate their students about the illegality of selling course material.
The memo suggests, among other things, that faculty copyright their course material, such as PowerPoint presentations.
College students sharing notes is nothing new, Chris Wilson, associate general counsel for Miami, said.
"It's the Internet-based selling of notes that's the new aspect of this," Wilson said.
According to Wilson, online note-selling made a brief appearance a few years ago but then died out. Now, however, sites like Notehall, which give students money for uploading their class notes, are prevalent on college campuses. Wilson said professors would call about their notes being shared online by students.
"Last semester was really when we started getting multiple phone calls," Wilson said.
Miami's solution: professors should visibly copyright class materials.
Although no copyright notice is needed for copyright protection, it was suggested so that students would have extra notice that the material is protected. The memo also suggested that professors note on their syllabi and explain to their classes that selling course material is illegal and would not be permitted.
"Copyright is a complicated area," Wilson said.
The office of the general counsel was trying to distribute some guidance on the topic, Wilson said.
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Botany professor David Gorchov did not previously include a copyright notice on his class PowerPoint presentations but has started doing so since seeing the memo.
"I had a student sell, essentially, my notes on one of those websites," Gorchov said.
Until then, Gorchov didn't know the note-sharing websites even existed. When he read the general counsel office's suggestions for protecting class material, he decided to follow their suggestions, he said.
"I put guidance in the syllabus and highlighted that at the first class meeting," Gorchov said. "I hadn't previously because I hadn't been aware of the issue."
The memo recommends that at a student's first offense, the faculty member start with a basic conversation with the student, since many students may not realize what they're doing could violate copyright laws. If the problem were to continue though, it can be a violation of the student code of conduct and the law, Wilson said.
"It's really an educational opportunity," Wilson said. "We want people to know about this."
Ron Becker, associate professor of communication, does not explicitly copyright his class materials. When he heard about online note-sharing services, he suspected it might become an issue in his large mass communications introductory class, but didn't worry about it much.
"I don't dwell on it because I don't feel there's anything I can do about it personally," Becker said.
But Becker also said he might add copyright information to his syllabus and in lecture, especially because the topic ties in with his class concepts.
"I think students should be informed about university policy and the law," Becker said.
Gorchov had similar thoughts.
"I think it's important for everyone to respect everyone else's intellectual property," Gorchov said.
Sophomore Abby Pautz has been in classes in which students sell notes to websites and invite their classmates to view them.
"I've never used them," Pautz said. "I think it's incredibly lazy. The entire point was to help students who didn't do the reading themselves."
Pautz said, in her experience, teachers' Power Points are often from the textbook.
"It's not an academically honest way to succeed in classes, but I don't think they can pinpoint who deserves the royalties or effectively monitor students who do sell notes," Pautz said.
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