A few weeks ago, one of my students emailed me requesting
permission to post lecture materials and PowerPoint slides onto a website where
other students would be able to download them. He mentioned that in return for
these postings the owners of the site would offer him some small compensation,
possibly in the form of gift cards, or at least chances in a drawing to win a
gift card, although he did not seem to be clear on how that worked or why it
would be worth his time, let alone worth the potential consequences of
unauthorized use (theft, really) of intellectual property and the attendant
possibilities of being arrested, sued, or thrown out of the University (any
such action would be an Honor Code violation at MSU). Even more bizarre, at
least from my perspective, was the argument he offered as to why I should give
him my blessing to do this…
Somebody, my student argued, would steal my lecture
materials eventually, since they are available to every member of every one of
my classes each semester. If this was the case, wouldn’t I prefer that the
credit (and theoretical compensation) go to someone who was at least polite
enough to ask my permission first, as opposed to someone who would just steal
it without any additional discussion?
This is the first time anyone has ever told me that the
theft of my property (in this case, intellectual property) was inevitable, and
suggested that I might as well just go along with it. In point of fact, I’m not
at all certain this is the case, since my class materials are of no use to
anyone who isn’t enrolled in one of my classes – all of whom can download them
for free from our class homepage. There’s also the reality that most people are
not that eager to be sued, charged with a crime, or thrown out of the
University, or for that matter willing to risk all of those outcomes in return for
– I really cannot stress this enough – vague promises of compensation later.
The least unpleasant of these outcomes would effectively cost you thousands of
dollars, and possibly your entire career – why would you risk that for one
chance in a thousand at $20 worth of free merchandise?
Of course, none of this even addresses the truly eccentric
aspects of the situation, such as why would you suggest to one of your
instructors, who has the ability to give you a failing grade and prevent you
from graduating (I teach a required class), that you are going to steal his
work and there is nothing he can do about it? Or, for that matter, why would
such a website exist in the first place? If there is no charge for using the
site, how do the people running it make any money?
But that, alas, is a question for another day…
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