copyright requirement for dissertation submissions?

[Sally Glasser]

Hello,

I am writing from my personal gmail because I cannot join this group with my work email (below). At Hofstra University we require our doctoral students to file for copyright when they submit their dissertations to the library. For thesis submission, copyright is optional. A few questions:

1) Do you all require doctoral students to file for copyright?  If so, do you know why this decision was made?  If you do not, why not? 

2) If you do require copyright, have you ever had dissertation submission with more than one author?  If so, did you require the authors to file directly with the US Copyright office?  

I ask because ETD cannot currently offer copyright file for anything other than a work by a sole author and we have new program that uses a model that results in dissertations with groups of authors. I am trying to figure out how best to handle this. Any advice is appreciated. 

Thanks in advance best regards,

Sally   
*****************************
Sarah (Sally) Glasser
Serials/E-Resources Librarian
Axinn Library - Hofstra University
Hempstead NY 11549
516-463-5959
sarah....@hofstra.edu

[Laura Burtle]

Sally,

 

Since the author has a copyright automatically, we do not require them to register their work with the copyright office, although we do tell authors it is an option. I’m not clear what you are asking – where are they filing copyright that is not with the copyright office? That is the sole US entity that registers copyright, and multiple authors are not a copyright problem.

 

Laura

 

Laura Burtle, MSLS, JD

Manager, ScholarWorks@GSU

Georgia State University Library

lbu...@gsu.edu | 404-413-2706

Pronouns: she/her/hers

 

 

 

 

From: Sally Glasser <sall...@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, January 30, 2023 10:52 AM
To: ETD <e...@ndltd.org>
Subject: [etd] copyright requirement for dissertation submissions?

 

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[Sally Glasser]

Hi Laura,

The ProQuest ETD Administrator system has a service whereby they file on behalf of the student, so our students file (and pay) within the ETD Administrator at the time of dissertation submission.  It is a service ETD provides but the applications still go to the US Copyright office.  This is easier for our students and a way for the university to see that they have filed for copyright, which is currently required (only for dissertation submissions, NOT for theses submissions).  

I am not sure whose decision it was to require (as opposed to make optional) that doctoral students file for copyright of their dissertations.  No one here seems to know (it is a long standing requirement). If other doctorate granting institutions do not require this, perhaps we should reconsider our requirement and change it to optional.  

Sally

[Kleister, Jill]

Hi Sally,

 

Be careful with your lingo.  Students are not “filing for copyright [protection]” – the copyright already exists, when it was fixed in a tangible medium.  Your students are required to register their copyright with the feds.  Registering their copyright enables them to sue someone later for copyright infringement.   This may seem like splitting hairs, but I believe this is an important distinction, as you move forward with your evaluation. 

 

One other thing to keep in mind.  Having students use PQ ETD Administrator to register their copyright is a quick and easy way to monitor whether the students have complied with the requirement. However, it is important to remember that PQ charges $75 fee for this service (over and above the $45 Copyright Office fee https://www.copyright.gov/about/fees.html) which I assume is passed along to the student.

 

If the student registered the copyright themselves, without PQ, they would save the fee and no doubt could provide documentation that it had been done.  Down side is that it would require additional resources on the institution side to track.  At my institution, copyright registration is not required so we don’t track it in any way.

 

Best wishes,

 

Jill

 

---

J. S. Kleister, M.S.

Graduate Reader

Toulouse Graduate School | University of North Texas

Chestnut Hall, Suite 103

940.565.4495 | jill.k...@unt.edu | gradschool.unt.edu

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[Sally Glasser]

Hi Jill,

Thank you!  I appreciate the information. I used the word "file" because that is the word used in the ETD system.  Interesting - they should probably be using register... 

I did know that works are automatically protected once in a fixed and tangible form and that copyright registration enables them to file a lawsuit for copyright infringement, but since many don't seem to require it, I wonder whether we need to. I will wait to see if anyone else responds and the chat with some people here at my institution and make a decision. I really appreciate your (and everyone else's) answers. Thanks!!

Sally