controlling copyright and licensing

a college wants to "incorporate" my stuff into their product

[stapel]

I have an algebra lessons site which is becoming progressively more popular. (I'm eating up about eighteen gigs a month in bandwidth, and that's all traffic; I have no downloads or forums or anything.) I've filed the copyright (in the USA) on my lessons, and have tried to be fairly zealous in hunting down infringers.

I have started offering copies of my lessons for a small donation. I'm wondering what I should do about a licensing agreement, since I want it understood that I am not "selling" my lessons to the donor. (For instance, say a high-school educator is hired to create online algebra lessons, sends me a donation, and now, hey presto!, she thinks she "owns" a complete set of lessons.)

Also, a college in Texas has come sniffing around, wanting to "incorporate" my lessons into their product. Texas has some state-wide test that its high-school students have to take, and the educators are needing lessons that teach the students what they didn't get in high school, so they can pass the test. The educators apparently aren't writing their own lessons; they want mine instead. [insert rant concerning the state of education here] How should I handle this? Obviously, I don't want to turn my copyright over to them. Should I ask for more information? (What I've posted here is pretty much all they've told me so far.) If I deal with them, how on earth would I go about figuring what to charge? Where could I go to find a boilerplate license agreement? Do I need to bite the bullet and hire a lawyer?

If anybody has experience in these areas, I would appreciate your advice. Thank you for your time.

Eliz.

[jimbeetle]

First off:

bite the bullet and hire a lawyer?

Yep.

I don't want to turn my copyright over to them

Never.

Now, answering from the point of view of one who used to make a pretty decent living writing math textbooks (K-12), teachers' editions and associated ancillaries I know there's a big business writing pre-prepared lesson plans and other materials and it doesn't come on the cheap, which it sounds like these folks are trying to get it.

There are a couple of things you might consider.

For the lesson plans for which you now take a 'small donation' why not develop a new set of plans along somewhat similar lines, publish them yourself in printed form, and offer them for sale for use in the classroom? This would get away from messy licensing fees and leave you with strictly copyright considerations. It would also keep your web content unique.

For the university, well, you can go a few ways.

One would be the same as above. Publish the stuff yourself and sell it to them as a printed product. As long as the book holds up they have a right to use it (photocopying and other considerations aside).

Another would be to make an offer to write a new set of plans as 'work for hire,' in which case you simply write the stuff and the school owns the copyright. No muss, no fuss and you put some pretty good bucks in your pocket.

Or (here's where it gets messy), you can license a similar but different set of plans to them (again, to keep your site content unique). But how do you enforce a licensing agreement? How many students are allowed to use the materials? What length of time? And unless you're prowling the halls there's really no way of knowing what's going on.

Or, just a thought here, since you have tons of traffic and one university has already approached you there must be something good in there. How about you approaching an educational publisher -- which already has all its copyright, licensing and other ducks in line -- to write a series of plans for the publisher to market. The return probably wouldn't be as great, but would come with many fewer headaches.

I guess I'm basically saying to keep your site content as one unique facet of your business and completely split off any other projects. Not sure if there's really much of an answer here, but hopefully enough to get you thinking in slightly different directions.

Jim

[stapel]

Thank you so much for taking the time to write such a considered reply. The problem with much of your profferred solutions, however, is that I'm not an educator (so I don't know the technicalities of "lesson plans"; I just write actual lessons for the students), and that people want the content in web form (because the material is interlinked and meant to be used that way). The college wants it in web form, too, to be part of their web project (and later to be installed in learning labs throughout the state; we're not talking about one school; we're talking about all of Texas, at a minimum).

I am actually working (very slowly) on a lessons text (again, written for the students, not the educators), and it will differ somewhat from the web lessons. *sigh* I guess I really need to talk to a lawyer....

For now, though, I'm thinking of just saying "no" to the educators in Texas. They've gone on and on about how this will be a free project (until they start charging the schools) and how they won't be making any money on it (and what money they make they promise to plow back into the project) and how other corporations (I'm a housewife) have made small contributions in order to get their names on the product (in order to sell more product to parents), none of which makes me comfortable. If they want to give something free to the students, then they can link to me, right? Because my stuff is already free. And that would certainly avoid all of these legal hassles.

Thank you again for your time and advice.

Eliz.

[jimbeetle]

Now I better understand the situation. Guess I read the "plans" into the "lessons" since it was teachers making a donation for them.

But still, don't sell yourself short -- whether lesson plans or lessons, they go for pretty big bucks. And I used to work with quite a few 'housewives' with a couple of years teaching experience who would write lessons for the big textbook publishers. (That's somewhat how it usually works authors with the credentials come up with an overall concept and get their names on the book, then editors and writers actually structure the book and write the material.)

Whichever way you go just make sure to get what your material is worth. And you can still consider writing new online material for the Texas folks to keep you site unique.

And yep, talk to that lawyer.

Jim