In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Academic Staff Members (ASMs) at Memorial University are using online technologies to teach, engage in scholarship, and perform academic service in new ways. While the switch to remote teaching has temporarily altered the manner in which students are instructed, an ASM’s intellectual property and privacy rights remain unchanged.
The content of remote teaching sessions remain the intellectual property of the ASM and may not be copied or distributed without permission. ASMs should consider communicating a privacy and copyright statement to their students, for example:
The lectures, displays, and all material delivered or provided in <course number: course title by Professor Name>, including any visual or audio recording thereof, are subject to copyright owned by <Professor Name>, unless otherwise noted. It is prohibited to record or copy by any means, in any format, openly or surreptitiously, in whole or in part, in the absence of express written permission from <Professor Name> any of the lectures or materials provided or published in any form during or from the course. Students must not publish, send, post on an internet site, sell, rent, or otherwise distribute this content without the instructor’s express permission.
Further to a recent memo to MUNFA members regarding intellectual property and privacy rights, MUNFA would like to caution members about posting course lectures to non-licenced public websites such as YouTube. YouTube, for example, requires a worldwide, royalty-free, and transferable license for content uploaded to the website. ASMs are encouraged to become familiar with the privacy and security settings of any third-party service or software to ensure secure use.
ASMs with questions or who have experienced unauthorized recording or distribution of lectures or other course material are encouraged to contact the MUNFA office at munfa@mun.ca.
