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Is it traditional for students to sign away copyright to their thesis to the University? That seems outrageous to me, but perhaps I am missing something?

hprotagonist 9y ago
traditionally you register a personal copyright. it's implicit if you register nothing. some students may choose to request an embargo on their thesis, in those cases where their thesis work will be published elsewhere (in a peer reviewed journal, usually), or if their thesis would constitute disclosure of something for which a patent application is underway. my thesis was boring enough to avoid those cases.
- ensignavenger 9y ago
  If you retained the copyright personally, why would you need permission from the university to publish your work under a creative commons license? Was it just a courtesy email to let them know your plans?
  - horsawlarway 9y ago
    I can't speak for OP, but in my experience it's very rare for a thesis to be just your work. It's based on data and research often paid for by the university, and includes the work of many different people. indirectly: advisors, lab partners, professors, other students. Directly: Co-authors of papers, research assistants, and other contributors. It's a messy bundle of work.
    - ensignavenger 9y ago
      But copyright isn't based on ideas and doesn't cover raw data/facts- it covers the expression of those ideas and the compilation of the data.
  - hprotagonist 9y ago
    It was a courtesy, and also a formatting question. Because it's going to wind up in the library archives (and proquest) for ever and ever, the university is quite strict about formatting. I checked about 6 months ahead of time to make sure that replacing the (C) symbol with the (CC) symbol on the copyright page wasn't going to cause any issues. If a thesis is not properly submitted to proquest, you don't graduate, so... wanted to tick that box off pretty early.
SyneRyder 9y ago
One of the reasons I never continued on to do an Honours degree is because the University would have retained the copyright in my work, and the rights to license it commercially. I thought it was outrageous as well. But that was over 15 years ago, so maybe the situation has changed since.

hprotagonist 9y ago

traditionally you register a personal copyright. it's implicit if you register nothing. some students may choose to request an embargo on their thesis, in those cases where their thesis work will be published elsewhere (in a peer reviewed journal, usually), or if their thesis would constitute disclosure of something for which a patent application is underway. my thesis was boring enough to avoid those cases.

ensignavenger 9y ago
If you retained the copyright personally, why would you need permission from the university to publish your work under a creative commons license? Was it just a courtesy email to let them know your plans?
- horsawlarway 9y ago
  I can't speak for OP, but in my experience it's very rare for a thesis to be just your work. It's based on data and research often paid for by the university, and includes the work of many different people. indirectly: advisors, lab partners, professors, other students. Directly: Co-authors of papers, research assistants, and other contributors. It's a messy bundle of work.
  - ensignavenger 9y ago
    But copyright isn't based on ideas and doesn't cover raw data/facts- it covers the expression of those ideas and the compilation of the data.
- hprotagonist 9y ago
  It was a courtesy, and also a formatting question. Because it's going to wind up in the library archives (and proquest) for ever and ever, the university is quite strict about formatting. I checked about 6 months ahead of time to make sure that replacing the (C) symbol with the (CC) symbol on the copyright page wasn't going to cause any issues. If a thesis is not properly submitted to proquest, you don't graduate, so... wanted to tick that box off pretty early.

SyneRyder 9y ago

One of the reasons I never continued on to do an Honours degree is because the University would have retained the copyright in my work, and the rights to license it commercially. I thought it was outrageous as well. But that was over 15 years ago, so maybe the situation has changed since.