Question - Student/Professor Collaboration (Paid Project)

A group of faculty members have worked together to develop an online primer on copyright issues for use by university faculty, staff and students. They have worked together to research and draft the primer material and university legal counsel has reviewed and approved their work. In order to make the primer more appealing, the group hires a student in the graphic arts program to create some animated images for the primer. The student is paid a flat fee for the artwork, all of which is incorporated into the primer. Later, the student decides he would like to include two of the images he created on his own personal website. When he mentions this to a member of the faculty group, the faculty member tells the student that he cannot use the images without first obtaining the permission of the university. Is the faculty member right?

Hold your mouse pointer over the blue box below to view the answer:

Yes, if the university informed the student in writing that he was being paid to create the images as "works for hire" and the student agreed. Here, the student was acting as an independent contractor and was being paid to create the images for the university. The written agreement with the university likely listed the uses the university intended to make of the images and included an assignment by the student of his ownership in the images. Whether the student may now use the images on his own website depends on the language of the "work for hire" agreement. The university may want to enforce the agreement and deny the student the right to use the images (particularly if the images are strongly identified with the university or its online primer) or it may grant the student a license to make limited use of the images.