SULF’s membership service telephone hours from February 17 are Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 09.00-11.30,  telephone 08-505 836 00 (menu option 2).

Search for:
Copyright

Copyright for university teachers 

Who owns the recording of my lecture? Do I have to put my PowerPoint presentation on the course website? Do students have the right to record my lecture with their phones? What happens to my teaching material when I take a job elsewhere or retire? 

The special conditions that apply to the copyrighted works of university teachers are based on a long tradition, and they deviate from the general copyright solutions for the transfer of intellectual property in employment relationships. There are many reasons for this, but the most important one is the specific nature of teachers' employment relationships, which are characterised by a great deal of freedom at work, i.e. academic freedom. 

Educational material produced by teachers in higher education institutions belongs to the individual teacher. It is generally accepted practice in the field that the teacher owns the intellectual property rights to what they produce within the employment relationship. If the special rules regarding the intellectual property rights of academic staff are not to apply, the employer and the individual teacher must have agreed to this explicitly. 

Copyright can be described as protection against reproduction (copy protection) and unauthorised publication. This means that it does not provide protection against identical or substantially identical material created by someone else without knowledge of the first material. Duplication is therefore allowed in copyright law - if you are not aware of the first material and you create something similar, you are not infringing someone else's copyright. The same protection conditions apply whether the material is printed on paper or only exists digitally. Today, material in digital form can be found everywhere, for example on the internet and on course websites. 

Copyright protection consists of two parts: the economic rights and the moral rights. Economic rights allow the author to control the availability or reproduction (copying) of the material. This means that the author decides on the use of the material and can claim compensation for it. The author has complete freedom with regard to the economic aspects of the copyright ownership and can transfer all or part of the copyright for a limited or even unlimited time. The terms agreed are usually linked to the amount of financial remuneration.  

The moral aspect of copyright means that the author has the right to be named in connection with material. However, there are no uniform rules for naming the author - it is simply a matter of custom. Generally accepted practice governs not only whether the copyright owner is to be named, but also when and how. Furthermore, the rule means that it is forbidden to remove names from the material or to put someone else's name on it. 

Secondly, the moral right means that a work may not be modified, updated, adapted, edited etc. or used in any way that is damaging to the author. Modifying and adapting educational material without the teacher's consent may therefore constitute an infringement of the author's moral rights.  

The moral elements of copyright can never be completely waived, but remain with the author. This means that the moral elements can only be transferred to the extent that the author can foresee the consequences at the time that the agreement is made.  

Can I get help from SULF? 

Yes. If you are a member of SULF, you should contact the union representatives at your workplace.  You will find all contact details here

Further information 

For more detailed information on copyright for university teachers, we recommend that you read the publication Universitetslärares upphovsrätt, Copyright for University Teachers (in Swedish), written by SULF President Sanna Wolk, who is also a professor of intellectual property.