Who owns student-produced content?
Scenario: Student journalists have just completed their first converged media assignments and are just about ready for publication across the various platforms. Several indicate they think their work is good enough to share with other groups.Can they legally or ethically do that with repercussion?
By Mark Goodman
The question of who owns the copyright of work created for scholastic media is complex, but at some point, advisers need to answer that question. The sooner that is decided, the better for all.
One thing for certain, Mark Goodman, former executive director of the Student Press Law Center and current Knight Chair in Scholastic Journalism at Kent State University, said it is almost impossible for a school to claim copyright in the works students create.
“Absent a written assignment of rights signed by both student and parent (if the student is a minor),” Goodman said, “students retain the copyright to works they create.”
That’s not because public schools can’t own copyright, he said, it’s because students are not employees and the works they create are not “works for hire.” The fact they may be getting credit for a class does not change that. [pullquote] If I were advising a student publication about dealing with its copyright ownership issues from this point forward, I would say the best tactic is to have every staff member (and a parent/guardian if they are a minor) sign something at the beginning of the year that says they are assigning the copyright in the works they submit to the publication to THAT PUBLICATION, or giving a permanent license to the student publication to use those works.”[/pullquote]
In addition, there are real downsides to a school owning the copyright to student works, Goodman said. For example, if a school owns it, it can control how it is used. That inherently includes extensive censorship rights.
“If I were advising a student publication about dealing with its copyright ownership issues from this point forward,” Goodman said, “I would say the best tactic is to have every staff member (and a parent/guardian if they are a minor) sign something at the beginning of the year that says they are assigning the copyright in the works they submit to the publication to THAT PUBLICATION, or giving a permanent license to the student publication to use those works.”
He said it is possible for an student publication to own a copyright but that doesn’t make it belong to the school.
“Insert in your publication handbook or policy document a statement that states your student publication staff has authority over the copyrights owned by or licensed to the publication,” Goodman said. “If someone ever uses your publication’s contents without permission in violation of the copyright, you’ll have clear authority for asking them to stop.”
If student work is already distributed and others use it without permission, Goodman said he would recommend advisers and students act as if the publication itself owns the copyright, whether there is written documentation or not. A letter to the infringer requesting they take the material down immediately would be appropriate.
Goodman developed a model statement of who owns student works.
Goodman also said the SPLC’s Mike Hiestand wrote an excellent piece on copyright ownership on the SPLC blog .
For additional ownership resources:
• Now that it’s online… is it still mine
http://www.splc.org/news/report_detail.asp?id=1560&edition=52
• The editors’ checklist (se section of copyright and ownership of work)
http://www.splc.org/pdf/editor_checklist.pdf
• Your questions answered: Ownership of content
https://vimeo.com/11841801
• Model yearbook copyright warning
http://www.splc.org/knowyourrights/legalresearch.asp?id=122
• SPLC model yearbook staff member license
http://www.splc.org/pdf/yearbook_license.pdf
• Prince George’s considers copyright policy that takes ownership of students’ work
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/prince-georges-considers-copyright-policy-that-takes-ownership-of-students-work/2013/02/02/dc592dea-6b08-11e2-ada3-d86a4806d5ee_story.html
• Maryland advisers react to school district’s proposal to control copyright of student work
http://www.splc.org/news/newsflash.asp?id=2522
• Protecting your yearbook: How to register the copyright to prevent piracy
http://www.splc.org/news/report_detail.asp?id=1694&edition=62
• Registering your yearbook’s copyright (directions)
http://www.splc.org/knowyourrights/legalresearch.asp?id=121
• Reddit’s press guidelines: Get permission from Reddditors before using their content in a ist
http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/263067/reddits-press-guidelines-get-permission-from-redditors-before-using-their-content-in-a-list/#.U-vbWISkdm0.twitter
• Handle your yearbook copyright issues before you find the book for sale online
http://jeasprc.org/handling-yearbook-copyright-issues-before-you-find-the-book-for-sale-online/
• Principals, advisers and students face misconceptions about who ‘owns’ student work
http://www.splc.org/news/report_detail.asp?id=1584&edition=54
• Back to school checklist: who owns what?
http://www.splc.org/wordpress/?cat=13
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Instead of removing students from the solution, administrators should empower them to figure it out
What’s best for students? We return to that essential question constantly as decision-makers in every realm of education. In the “yearbook yikes” dilemma featured in this month’s Ethical Educator column in School Administrator magazine, the solutions address what may be best for one student but fail to mention what’s best for many others.
Where are the student editors in these discussions?
The opportunity to plan and produce student media is a valuable learning experience from start to finish. The communication, creativity, collaboration and critical thinking students on a yearbook staff experience continues well beyond the final page submission. Deciding how to handle the altered photo and ethical lapse is an essential piece of their learning.
Because students should be responsible for all content decisions, they also should be accountable to their audience and to each other. If the superintendent takes action to remedy the yearbook error, students are deprived of a major lesson in critical thinking and decision-making skills tied to journalistic standards and civic responsibility.
Ideally, student journalists address those standards and responsibilities long before producing even a single yearbook page by creating publication policies. With guidance and support from a trained journalism teacher, students define and put in writing what they stand for and why. The policy then serves as a guide — a commitment to themselves and their audience — for all future decisions. It includes what they will cover and why as well as how to handle errors, omissions, corrections and more.
If the students involved in the “yearbook yikes” dilemma have no such policy, this is an important lesson for them. Instead of removing students from the solution, administrators should empower them to figure it out and so they learn and grow from the process. As editors identify who was responsible for the altered photo and how to handle it (both internally with consequences and improved staff procedures as well as publicly and with the affected student), they can reevaluate their process and make it right.
Plenty of great resources exist to aid in this process, such as the Model Code of Ethics from the National Scholastic Press Association, which charges student journalists to be accountable with a commitment to admit mistakes and publicize corrections. The Society of Professional Journalists also offers an extensive collection of policies journalism teachers can use with their students in these important discussions. The bottom line is that this dilemma affects many more students than just the one pictured in the yearbook, and administrators should consider the long-term effects as well as the shorter-term needs of addressing a parent complaint.
As a student media adviser, I know firsthand the inaccuracy of Sarah MacKenzie’s claim that “… most yearbooks are already gathering dust on shelves only to be retrieved for class reunions, if at all.” Even months after distribution day, students cart yearbooks to school events, pull them from their backpacks daily, poring over pages together to read stories and carry them on vacations to review the personal memories, photos and details of times passed.
That’s all the more reason student editors should strive to meet journalistic standards and operate with integrity, and absolutely why student editors should be accountable for their decisions, including determining the best solution to this and any other dilemma. With a stronger emphasis on their “why” as a staff, training and support from a qualified adviser and empowerment to solve problems based on their own critical thinking, students learn important lessons and make better decisions.
And that, of course, is what’s best for all students.
Sarah Nichols, MJE, M.Ed
teacher/adviser, Whitney High Student Media
2010 National Yearbook Adviser of the Year
vice president, Journalism Education Association
@sarahjnichols
Current First Amendment issues worth noting
Looking for discussion starters for the end of school?
For the latest on three nationally ongoing censorship issues, check out:
Fond du Lac, WI
http://www.first-draft.com/
http://wisoapbox.blogspot.com/
http://host.madison.com/news/opinion/column/guest/ben-bromley-lessons-in-school-censorship/article_3d46f96e-cb4c-563a-b802-046717376398.html
Neshaminy, PA
• Neshaminy board tables controversial publication policy changes
http://stoganews.com/news/neshaminy-board-tables-controversial-publication-policy-changes/13803/
• Controversial Neshaminy policy going back to committee
http://levittownnow.com/2014/05/23/controversial-neshaminy-policy-going-back-to-committee/
• Why forcing a student newspaper to use a racial slur is wrong on so many levels
http://bangordailynews.com/2014/05/12/opinion/why-forcing-a-student-newspaper-to-use-a-racial-slur-is-wrong-on-so-many-levels/
• Playwickian staff implores Neshaminy board not to adopt policy preventing student newspaper from banning use of ‘Redskin’ mascot name
http://www.buckslocalnews.com/articles/2014/05/07/the_advance/news/doc536a78353af44687155661.txt
Heber City, UT
• Altered yearbook photos at Utah high school spark controversy
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/altered-yearbook-photos-utah-high-school-spark-controversy-n118496
• School alters girls’ yearbook photos to cover bare skin, is not sorry
http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-girls-yearbook-photos-altered-20140529-story.html
• Photoshop a yearbook photo neckline, and you tell a teen to be someone else
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/30/photoshop-yearbook-photo-neckline-teen-school-utah
• ‘Shoulder-shaming’ girls at Utah high school: Why the big coverup?
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2014/0530/Shoulder-shaming-girls-at-Utah-high-school-Why-the-big-coverup-video
• Students say altered yearbook photos meant to shame them (see related stories)
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/58000870-78/baum-photos-montoya-yearbook.html.csp#pd_a_8085098
In related coverage of journalism ethics now and in the fall, the question of how altering pictures in student media affects journalism as a whole and creates the potential of multiple ethical lessons.
• Editing yearbook photos not uncommon, says printer
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/58004843-78/yearbook-photos-utah-journalism.html.csp
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Noteworthy views and events
on student expression questions
Three recent incidents involving censorship make for interesting reading. Students, and advisers, can learn that not everyone agrees with such actions and that the best remedy for censorship is vigilance.
New Jersey – A local columnist sides with the students in censorship of story about students smoking cigarettes
• This policy needs a rewrite
• Pemberton students say district unfairly censoring newspaper
• New Jersey students to appeal administrators’ censorship to school board
Wisconsin – article about rape culture bring change in policy to prior review
• Principal requires approval of high school paper’s stories after rape culture article
• Fond du Lac high schools protest new censorship mandate for school publication
• High school cracks down on student paper that published rape culture article
Arkansas – yearbook censors profile of gay student
• Arkansas high school administration censors yearbook profile of gay student
• Students say profile on gay teen is removed from yearbook
• Sheridan high squelches yearbook profile of gay student
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Be proud of each trip you take to publish student media
by Stan Zoller
Several years ago I was having a conversation with my neighbor, also a teacher. Our conversation covered the usual teacher stuff – students, administrators, curriculum, union contracts – and course loads.
It was while we discussing the classes we taught, he pronounced that “well, anyone can teach journalism.”
So much for good neighbors.
I asked him what his point of reference was and he, to no surprise, did not have a good answer, but seemed hint that “all we had to do” was put out the paper, which, I guess is like saying all drivers education teachers have to do is start the car.
Journalism teachers seem to be education’s misunderstood children. It’s the destination – the newspaper, the yearbook, the broadcast or website by which we are judged. That’s all we do.
[pullquote]What’s overlooked, as we all know, are the intricacies that go into student media. Not the intricacies of InDesign or Photoshop – but the intricacies of journalism. The laws, the ethics, the policies and the court decisions.[/pullquote]
You know, “hey kids, go and report so we can produce the next edition, get the next sig done or post it.” You know, we’re like Nike – we just do it.
Journalism educators are notoriously supportive of each other (well, for the most part) and of our craft. We’re proud when the final product is published, produced or posted.
What we need to be proud of however, is not the destination – but the trip we took to get there. My guess is most people – in education and out – do not have an idea of everything that goes into producing student media. They see the photos, read the words, listen to the broadcast and say “nice job.”
What’s overlooked, as we all know, are the intricacies that go into student media. Not the intricacies of InDesign or Photoshop – but the intricacies of journalism. The laws, the ethics, the policies and the court decisions.
What separates journalism classes from the many other classes is what students need to know before they get “the keys to the car.” Our students need to be exposed on a regular basis to court decisions that impact journalism, not just student journalism.
News consumers who read or watch student media should have the same expectations they do as if they were reading the Chicago Tribune, the Sacramento Bee, the Virginian-Pilot or the New York Times.
Unrealistic? Maybe high school students don’t have Pulitzer Prize winning writing and reporting skills – but they need to have the same ethics and understanding of press law as any reporter. Administrators need to understand that the student media is not an outlet for students to have fun in print, online or on air. If journalism educators don’t keep the bar raised for their student journalists, then the door to prior review and prior restraint may swing open.
And before you know it, administrators may think that anyone can teach journalism.
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