4 ms·

Seems a bit weird to me that university has copyright over homework done by students (which is my understanding because otherwise this DMCA would be baseless).

by comboy 12y ago

Seems a bit weird to me that university has copyright over homework done by students (which is my understanding because otherwise this DMCA would be baseless). It hasn't been the case at my university.

bartbes 12y ago
"a large portion of the uploaded code is copyrighted by the University of Illinois." seems to suggest the homework involved working on an existing codebase.
- spacemanmatt 12y ago
  To me it says they assert copyright over a large portion, but I would look for something more firm on actual copyright status of uploaded code. Other schools apparently use stub code for assignments so classwork is derivative, but I haven't seen that is the case here.
yoshuaw 12y ago
Many universities have this policy, but given that students have to pay (!) to enroll in a university it strikes me as odd that the university would then presume to take control of all the work they produce.
- hyperbovine 12y ago
  "Control of all the work they produce" is an exaggeration. The University asserts copyright to the boilerplate code on which these assignments are based. Nobody claims to own your sophomore year English essays.
- bunderbunder 12y ago
  As a method of preventing plagiarism, it makes sense. Getting the copyright for the code into the university's possession gives them legal standing to do things like this. Ideally, of course, there'd be a process for getting exemptions - I know I would have been irate if my alma mater had claimed ownership of the year's worth of work I spent on my senior thesis project. But that's also code where the risk of plagiarism is relatively low-impact, what with it being specific to that particular project. Answers to problem sets, though? Pfft, let them have it. I never had a reason to look at any of it ever again, so the value of retaining ownership to me is virtually nil. Whereas the value of having even a slight incremental improvement in the protections universities use to help me not have to spend quite so much time worrying about whether the kids I'm looking at hiring might have cheated their way through college without ever picking up proper problem-solving skills? Priceless.
  - dalke 12y ago
    "Getting the copyright for the code into the university's possession" There is no copyright transfer agreement nor is this a work for hire. This case at UIUC appears to be a copyright issue related to school provided materials which were further modified by the students.
mdasen 12y ago
In CS assignments, there's usually a good amount of starter code that would be copyrighted by the university. As the takedown notices states, "a large portion of the uploaded code is copyrighted by the University of Illinois". It doesn't claim copyright over the student's work, but the portion of the code that is under their copyright.
- comboy 12y ago
  OK, yes that makes more sense. I guess students should then learn to only upload parts coded by them? ;)
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
dalke 12y ago
It appears that the students started with a school provided template, then modified it to give the solutions. Consider: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:KmeV5zeMhw4J:https://github.com/AdonisSaveYourLife/cs241_mps/blob/master/ds1/btree.c+&cd=2&hl=sv&ct=clnk&gl=se http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:KmeV5ze... /** * Initializes the binary tree data structure. * * You may assume that: * - This is the first function called for each instance of btree_t. * - The btree_t pointer is a valid, non-NULL pointer. * * @param b * A pointer to the binary tree data structure. */ void btree_init(btree_t *b) { }
Cthulhu_ 12y ago
Happens quite often actually - there's been plenty of cases where a student made something for a school assignment, but wasn't allowed (somehow) to turn that into a business because the code legally belongs to the school. Most companies have a similar clause in their contracts (i.e. anything you write during working hours belongs to the company)
philjohn 12y ago
My final year project had a stipulation - if you took the output to market, the university would get 50%, your academic advisor 25% and you "get" to keep 25%.
- zerohp 12y ago
  Oddly enough, University of Illinois makes an IP claim exception for the ECE senior design. Students own 100%. The only exception is if the student team has help from a professor or research group that is outside the normal labs and tools offered by the class.

by comboy 12y ago

bartbes 12y ago

"a large portion of the uploaded code is copyrighted by the University of Illinois." seems to suggest the homework involved working on an existing codebase.

spacemanmatt 12y ago
To me it says they assert copyright over a large portion, but I would look for something more firm on actual copyright status of uploaded code. Other schools apparently use stub code for assignments so classwork is derivative, but I haven't seen that is the case here.

yoshuaw 12y ago

Many universities have this policy, but given that students have to pay (!) to enroll in a university it strikes me as odd that the university would then presume to take control of all the work they produce.

hyperbovine 12y ago
"Control of all the work they produce" is an exaggeration. The University asserts copyright to the boilerplate code on which these assignments are based. Nobody claims to own your sophomore year English essays.
bunderbunder 12y ago
As a method of preventing plagiarism, it makes sense. Getting the copyright for the code into the university's possession gives them legal standing to do things like this. Ideally, of course, there'd be a process for getting exemptions - I know I would have been irate if my alma mater had claimed ownership of the year's worth of work I spent on my senior thesis project. But that's also code where the risk of plagiarism is relatively low-impact, what with it being specific to that particular project. Answers to problem sets, though? Pfft, let them have it. I never had a reason to look at any of it ever again, so the value of retaining ownership to me is virtually nil. Whereas the value of having even a slight incremental improvement in the protections universities use to help me not have to spend quite so much time worrying about whether the kids I'm looking at hiring might have cheated their way through college without ever picking up proper problem-solving skills? Priceless.
- dalke 12y ago
  "Getting the copyright for the code into the university's possession" There is no copyright transfer agreement nor is this a work for hire. This case at UIUC appears to be a copyright issue related to school provided materials which were further modified by the students.

mdasen 12y ago

In CS assignments, there's usually a good amount of starter code that would be copyrighted by the university. As the takedown notices states, "a large portion of the uploaded code is copyrighted by the University of Illinois". It doesn't claim copyright over the student's work, but the portion of the code that is under their copyright.

comboy 12y ago
OK, yes that makes more sense. I guess students should then learn to only upload parts coded by them? ;)

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

dalke 12y ago

It appears that the students started with a school provided template, then modified it to give the solutions. Consider: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:KmeV5zeMhw4J:https://github.com/AdonisSaveYourLife/cs241_mps/blob/master/ds1/btree.c+&cd=2&hl=sv&ct=clnk&gl=se http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:KmeV5ze... /** * Initializes the binary tree data structure. * * You may assume that: * - This is the first function called for each instance of btree_t. * - The btree_t pointer is a valid, non-NULL pointer. * * @param b * A pointer to the binary tree data structure. */ void btree_init(btree_t *b) { }

Cthulhu_ 12y ago

Happens quite often actually - there's been plenty of cases where a student made something for a school assignment, but wasn't allowed (somehow) to turn that into a business because the code legally belongs to the school. Most companies have a similar clause in their contracts (i.e. anything you write during working hours belongs to the company)

philjohn 12y ago

My final year project had a stipulation - if you took the output to market, the university would get 50%, your academic advisor 25% and you "get" to keep 25%.

zerohp 12y ago
Oddly enough, University of Illinois makes an IP claim exception for the ECE senior design. Students own 100%. The only exception is if the student team has help from a professor or research group that is outside the normal labs and tools offered by the class.