Does Not-for-Profit Own Teachers' Courses?

We are a not for profit that has several courses and workshops developed by teachers who are contractors. We want to publish the courseware online. What is required to be clear that the IP is owned by our organization not the teacher? They were paid for developing the materials. Absent an agreement to the contrary, a contractor acquires copyright in works created for someone else. (Check our previous entry, Who Owns What I Write For NonProfit?) So if your non-profit wants to reproduce copyrighted materials, you'll need to have an agreement in place. You may have already signed such an agreement, or you can go back now and seek either an assignment or a license, both discussed below.
Acquiring ownership of contractor works. Your non-profit will own the copyright in the coursework (and not have to seek permission) if the contractor signed a work for hire agreement at the time the materials were prepared. Alternatively, you and the contractor might have signed an agreement containing an assignment provision -- an arrangement that says something to the effect of, "I assign all copyright in the work I created to the not-for-profit." Either of these arrangements allow the non-profit, as copyright owner, to freely exploit the materials including publish them online. Although it is probably too late to execute a work made for hire --  such agreements should be made in anticipation of the completed work -- the contractor can execute an assignment at any time.
License it. Even if the non-profit doesn't own copyright and can't acquire ownership via an assignment,  the nonprofit may have acquired a nonexclusive implied license to reproduce the materials for their intended purpose. That is, if you hired the teachers to create course materials and the teachers were aware of your intention to publish the materials online, you would still have an implied license to publish the materials online. The drawback to an implied license is that it is nonexclusive and the teacher can offer the course materials to others, as well. In that case, you can still achieve your goal by executing an exclusive license for the rights you want. You can find sample agreement for most of the purposes discussed above in our Getting Permission book.

Who Owns Non Profit Website Content?

Dear Rich: Our small non-profit executive director created our website and much of the content (other content, logos, all photos etc, was provided to her by myself). Upon her stepping down as Executive Director, she deleted the website and all of its content. Apparently she feels that since she created it, it is hers. Because she created it as Executive Director and the website was a job responsibility of hers, wouldn’t the intellectual property and the website belong to the organization? There are no paid “employees” of the non-profit, but she did have an official title and is on the non-profit legal paperwork, checking account, etc. We are trying to recover the content because it is a big hit to the non-profit to lose all of our web content, it’s formatting, links, material, etc. Note, we have tried to have moderator access to the website from the start, but she has always been possessive and protective of it – now we apparently know why. Before addressing your legal issues, are you aware that you may be able to recreate the website using the Internet Archive's wayback machine? Your tech advisors may be able to copy the HTML (source) code by right clicking on the archived page, and then use that code to recreate the essential page elements.
If she was an employee ... If the executive director was an employee of the nonprofit, and if the website was created within the course of her employment, then the nonprofit owns all the content including the appearance and design. That's a basic principle of copyright known as an employee work made for hire. However, having an official title of executive director and managing the checking account don't necessarily make her an employee. Use the government standards for judging whether she can be categorized as an employee or contractor.
If she wasn't an employee ... The nonprofit might still own all rights to the website if there is a contract or other paperwork setting out the executive director's obligations and transferring ownership to the nonprofit. Also check the nonprofit's bylaws in the event they address the ownership issue. Even if there is no paperwork and you conclude the director was an independent contractor, not an employee, there's a good chance that the nonprofit acquired a nonexclusive implied license to use the materials provided by the executive director. Finally, it's possible that the elements contributed by the director are not copyrightable by her --  perhaps because they are based on other material or because they lack sufficient originality to qualify for copyright protection.

Who Owns What I Write for Nonprofit?

Dear Rich: I'm trying to build my resume as a freelance writer, which sometimes means doing things for free. A couple of nonprofits that I volunteer with have had me write for them: an article for an animal shelter's newsletter, and another for a nonprofit kids' magazine. But now I'm wondering whether I can reuse this material and submit it elsewhere, for pay. Do the nonprofits now own the content, or do I? I guess I should have asked them about this earlier, but now I'm embarrassed to.  Don't be embarrassed. You're not the first person to create something for a nonprofit and later wonder about copyright ownership (see our earlier entry on the subject).
Who owns what? Assuming you're not an employee of the nonprofit, and assuming you didn't sign any paperwork assigning your rights in the articles, you own the copyright and can reuse the material however you like. Most likely, what happened is that you gave the nonprofit an implied nonexclusive license to use the article and that's about all.  If you did execute an agreement with the nonprofits, (1) review the rules on works made for hire to determine whether your agreement qualifies as work made for hire; and (2) review the rules regarding assignments to determine if you have assigned your rights. Our guess is that you haven't done either.
Note to nonprofits. If you run a nonprofit and want to acquire rights from freelancers, we suggest that you use a work made for hire agreement, license, or assignment. You can put together a simple agreement with the aid of an attorney or by using our permissions book. And speaking of books and nonprofits, may we also recommend one of our favorites on nonprofit fundraising.

Is Star Wars Blog Illegal?

Star Wars Episode 12:
Revenge of the IP Lawyers

Dear Rich: I have a blog that I recently finished called Anikin's Blog. It was a spin off of the Star Wars movie series. I was, however, afraid of copyright infringments and thus refrained from spelling any copyrighted names correctly. I want to start a new blog about a Storm Trooper, but I figure I will get more traffic if I spell the names correctly and then can receive more Google searches. Is this legal considering the blog is non-profit? Can we start by clarifying one small point? Many people write to the Dear Rich Staff and state that their business is nonprofit perhaps because they think that fact will influence whether they are liable for infringing (it won't). Many readers believe that nonprofit means that their business doesn't profit. Not true. A nonprofit has a fairly specific definition; it is a business that qualifies for certain tax benefits and has registered as a nonprofit corporation. It may seem paradoxical but a nonprofit can make a profit, provided it plows those profits back into the charitable, scientific, or educational purpose for which it was created.
Right, you had a question. We're not sure about the value of your misspelled name strategy. We don't know if it shields you from Google searches or more importantly from Lucasfilm lawyers. In any case, in light of the zillions of unauthorized Stars Wars related blogs (at least seven of which claim to be the "official" Star Wars blog), as well as the galaxies of Star Wars fanfiction, Star wars podcasts, wikis, videos, and parodies, we think that a new blog about Star Wars Storm Troopers will be flying lower than a Gungan 'Bongo' submarine on the Lucasfilm legal radar screen. In other words, don't expect a cease and desist letter in the near future. That's not to say that someday, the Star Wars legal team will decide to clean house. But as a very general rule, the attorneys appear to reserve their legal muscle to go after those who seek to profit from unauthorized Star Wars products or those with high-radar trademark violations.