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For fun, I looked up the UC budget. Something like 10-15% comes direct from the state (10% state general funds, 4% UC general funds, whatever that is). Tuition is around 11%.

Most of the money comes from "Medical Centers" and "Other sales and services", that's a hair north of 40%.

I had absolutely no idea. I thought state general funding would be over 50% of the budget. You learn something new every day.

http://www.ucop.edu/operating-...

The school's sexual harrassment policies are here (PDF) and do not look vague to me. Presumably, the specific details of the case have not been made public because (I imagine) that neither Geoff Marcy nor his accusers particularly want the sordid details floating around the web.

You mean a convenient assumption of divisions? For the most part, divisions exist on merit as they should. Sometimes, individuals use irrational discriminators to either reject or accept other individuals, and that should be dealt with. However...

The feminists (and their social justice relatives) don't like merit because it conflicts with the precepts of socialist ideology. Their definition of equality is equal outcome at any cost, ie we're all interchangeable drones, and "gender is a social construct", therefore any inequity in distribution must be due to discrimination. I've always found this hilarious because this is brought up under the guise of promoting tolerance of DIVERSITY, which assumes we're NOT all the same. The fact is, women over represent with certain traits and men do with others. Cultures have traits too. This is what makes them diverse. This also means that certain groups will over represent in some areas and under represent in others. This is not systemic discrimination. It's self discriminatory on the part of these individuals. Fewer women choose to go into engineering and fewer men choose to go into nursing. This is ok.

Any attempt to artificially manipulate this will result in the very systemic discrimination feminists claim to fight. What you are seeing, here, on slashdot and other places is resentment of affirmative action's hypocrisy that, if strong enough, will motivate people to discriminate on those traits, eg: "Did she get this senior engineer position because of merit or because of her vagina?" or "You're just criticizing my work because I'm a woman." This shows that the so-called victim classes are actually the privileged ones. They get to escape criticism by playing the oppression card while praise is heaped on them by those wishing to prove their social justice street cred (often just to avoid any future lawsuits).

This is why there are women who are anti-feminist. They want that opportunity to earn the respect of their peers, and I don't blame them. Succeeding on merit is true accomplishment. 'Offsets' as you put it, just deny them this opportunity and build systemic discrimination against men, oppressing them and giving them reason to resent. The feminist response? "Check your privilege!" which is not an argument at all, it's just shaming language meant to shut down the discussion argument because they don't have one.

Apparently, even questioning this narrative like I've done here is an example of bigoted discrimination now. This is certifiably insane, and it's being taught as truth in the university system. Instead of silencing certain forms of speech, I would advocate silencing no one.
http://www.ucop.edu/academic-p...

No they don't. Feminism presents it as a battle between male space or a female space. It's a false dichotomy. The hypocrisy is that feminists expect men to take the 'chivalrous' route and modify their interaction styles for women, yet asking women to reciprocate with some toughness and objectivity is 'oppressive' or 'misogynistic.' The net result is that men are driven out of areas where women have gotten their PC 'safe spaces' for their interaction and thinking styles because men do not do well there. Just ask a male nurse. Fighting discrimination with discrimination is not a solution.

I'm a fan of what works for a given environment and given group of people. The individuals making up the bulk of the effort are the ones who decide the culture simply because they are the most productive. Anything else would drive these productive individuals out and weaken the result. Linus and his lieutenants are far more productive than sarah sharp is, and she is not happy with the interaction style they set, so she goes. No big loss. She's welcome to either adapt to that or work on a different project. If her viewpoint is truly superior and her politics in line with reality, it should be a no brainer to fork the kernel and demonstrate this. The best contributors would flock to her and, in time, her branch would be the technically superior one. She should be showing us 'misogynists' how it's done instead of whining and stirring up shitstorms.

Feminism (and the social justice crowd in general) hate the idea of judging on merit and performance.
Some random quick google searches. Note how they contort the language and definitions..
http://mediadiversified.org/20...
http://geekfeminism.org/2009/1...
This has also infected academia. It's no surprise a lot of people with sarah sharp's attitudes have come out of the university system.
http://www.ucop.edu/academic-p...

"meritocracy is a microaggression"

That's not what the link says. It says that promoting the myth of meritocracy, i.e. denying that there is a problem is a microagression. Meritocracy itself is a good thing, a goal we should pursue.

Look at what's happening in colleges and universities. You've got radical leftists and radical feminists pushing for racial quotas instead of merit. Even several universities have come out with their "meritocracy is a microaggression" bullshit. AKA University of California campuses. Surprise, those young, kids who want to be protected from everything...

Holy canolli! That read was simultaneously hilarious and pathetic. As it turns out though, that kind of ultimate whining victimthink has been around on campuses for a long time. Like at least from the 60's

In the end, you just write it off to whiny folk, at the far end of the spectrum, sort of like the liberal versions of Ted Cruz. Too far out to be taken seriously.

Look at what's happening in colleges and universities. You've got radical leftists and radical feminists pushing for racial quotas instead of merit. Even several universities have come out with their "meritocracy is a microaggression" bullshit. AKA University of California campuses. Surprise, those young, kids who want to be protected from everything...

I thought it should be obvious that since the UCs used to be basically "free" (the government was subsidizing the whole thing) and now they are not, then by definition they are less subsidized. If you want to try to argue that there's just more money going in and so in absolute dollars they are not less subsidized, you'd be wrong too. The state/government's contribution has fallen by over 60% since 1990.

If I understand correctly about the definition of circadian rhythm -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circadian_rhythm -- it does not relate to what you are talking about here. If you are talking about an article at University of California -- http://www.ucop.edu/sciencetoday/article/18885 -- then I may be related but I still believe that it is a bit off topic.

Not sure when you attended UC, but if you were there in 1989-1990, your tuition/fees were $1,634/year.
Now it's $13,181/year.

Source : http://www.ucop.edu/budget/fees/documents/history_fees.pdf

As a educator and engineer I found that one of the ways to get kids interested in science, tech, engineering, & Math (STEM) fields is to concentrate on hands on activities, that dont necessairly need calculations and the 'tedius boring' parts of experiments. Many things like trebuchets, mouse trap cars, etc can be built via using imagination and trail & error methods. Granted, the nice thing about this approach is that you can always adjust the activities/challenges to meet the age group, as well as incorporate more traditional science elements (angles, data tables, etc). The main thing is to capture the kids with the fun hook, otherwise they'll see it as just more work. Look into the local universities, many of them have after school programs or can offer curriculum. The STEM departments are a great place to start. Also, your schoold district and county education board will have connections as well. Personally, I belong to MESA (mathematics, engineering, science achievement), there might be one in your area http://mesa.ucop.edu/about/mesausa.html Theres also things like Cosmos http://www.ucop.edu/cosmos/, Avid, and a variety of other programs that have people who do exactly what your looking for on a daily basis. Then theres also the national professional societies that usually have k-12 curriculm/programs, among these are IEEE, SWE, SHPE, NSBE, ASME, ASCE. Lastly don't under estimate local government. Most reasonably sizeable cities have programs that would fit your needs. Even your council members and other elected offcials tend to be well connected and help offer leads as well.

As a educator and engineer I found that one of the ways to get kids interested in science, tech, engineering, & Math (STEM) fields is to concentrate on hands on activities, that dont necessairly need calculations and the 'tedius boring' parts of experiments. Many things like trebuchets, mouse trap cars, etc can be built via using imagination and trail & error methods. Granted, the nice thing about this approach is that you can always adjust the activities/challenges to meet the age group, as well as incorporate more traditional science elements (angles, data tables, etc). The main thing is to capture the kids with the fun hook, otherwise they'll see it as just more work. Look into the local universities, many of them have after school programs or can offer curriculum. The STEM departments are a great place to start. Also, your schoold district and county education board will have connections as well. Personally, I belong to MESA (mathematics, engineering, science achievement), there might be one in your area http://mesa.ucop.edu/about/mesausa.html Theres also things like Cosmos http://www.ucop.edu/cosmos/, Avid, and a variety of other programs that have people who do exactly what your looking for on a daily basis. Then theres also the national professional societies that usually have k-12 curriculm/programs, among these are IEEE, SWE, SHPE, NSBE, ASME, ASCE. Lastly don't under estimate local government. Most reasonably sizeable cities have programs that would fit your needs. Even your council members and other elected offcials tend to be well connected and help offer leads as well.

What I said before:

While I support embryonic stem cell research, I don't support taxpayer money supporting it. Reduce taxes and let those who want ESC research donate money.

While I do no support government funding of research I don't oppose it either. I'd rather government reduce tax and let others pay for research. Only as a last effort should government fund research. But when government does fund it then the research should be open sourced so anyone could use it.

There is very rarely any corporate funding for something that CAN'T BE PATENTED

Corporations aren't the only ones that fund research. Universities fund research as well. So do charities and non profits. Others fund St Jude's Children's Research Hospital, which then funds research. Before he died Danny Thomas put his heart and soul into starting and supporting St Jude's, as does his daughter Marlo Thomas.

Falcon

They seem to not have to worry about surviving like those annuals - wonder why.

Here is something on oak pollination:
http://danr.ucop.edu/ihrmp/oak96.htm

"... Studies of other oak species have shown that the male flowers do not open and release pollen unless humidity drops below 45% for several hours. In 1998, many of the trees flowered during a period of rainy weather and subsequently produced no acorns. Amount of solar radiation received during the pollination period was positively correlated with acorn production in this year. We additionally found evidence that the size of the prior yearâ(TM)s acorn crop influences acorn yields. Trees that produce large numbers of acorns in one year may not have the resources to produce a large crop in the subsequent year."

Perennials are wonderful when it comes to soil erosion prevention but they just don't have to produce fruit to survive all the time, so they don't - selfish things.

Those deserts are much better off being used for solar power generation (which does use water, but in a closed loop).

Algae can use water in a closed loop for algae as well. And those deserts? Imperial Valley, CA is a desert. Yet because water from the Colorado River is diverted there it has created America's Winter Salad Bowl. During winter 90% of the US's produce come from there.

As for whether desert should be used for algae or solar, I see no reason why it can't be used for both.

When I applied to the UCs in in the 1990s, I remember rural and inner-city students got bonus points on their applications, partly for this reason. (Yup, the first 50% of UC students are selected by an aging mainframe, based on a weighted sum of GPA, SAT/ACT scores, and various bonus points like this... back then, being an "underrepresented minority" also gave you bonus points, but voters made that illegal by the end of the 90s.) It looks like they still have a system that is somewhat accommodating.

Do I agree with your point? Yes. Do I think you need to cite your information? Hell Yes. Throwing facts around is sloppy and needs to stop. University of California pays even their humanities people better at almost $34,000 and goes up from there.

U of CA may be more comprehensible, but its NAME is UCSD. You call something by its name, not its descriptor. People don't call you "Human slashdot poster from outside America," or "the letter m followed by chanaud," they call you mchanaud. I have no idea what an mchanaud is, but it's incumbent upon me to learn what one is if I'm interested in a story about you.

The University of California is a public trust defined by the California Constitution (article 9, section 9, http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/waisgate?waisdoc id=8871818784+0+0+0&waisaction=retrieve) which specifically names it as "The University of California." This name is protected by California statute and the associated campus nicknames, e.g., UCSF, UCSD, UCLA, are protected trademarks (http://www.ucop.edu/ucophome/coordrev/ucpolicies/ trademarks/ucname_bg.html).

It is never, ever referred to as "U of CA," and calling it "U of CA" is confusing to people who actually know what the University of California is, so forgive me if I seem unsympathetic to the Human Slashdot Poster from Outside America Who Uses Descriptors Instead of Names When Identifying Things to Avoid Confusion for Those of Us Who Care About non-American Readers.

Actually, the LJ 4 and later don't emit ozone at all.

HP LaserJet and HP Color LaserJet Series Printers - Information about Ozone Emissions
The HP LaserJet IIP, IIP Plus, and IIIP series printers generate ozone emissions far below 0.1 parts per million while printing. The HP LaserJet IIISi, 4, and 4M series printers do not emit ozone at any time. The reason is that none of these printers have corona wires.

At the University of California, the same applies. A work is not the property of the University unless they sponsor, commission, or contract it: http://www.ucop.edu/ucophome/coordrev/policy/8-19- 92att.html .

And just to riff off of the general subject, I think it's absurd to demand that students' papers be put in some company's database. Colleges and corporations alike have not hereto proven the most responsible or effective guardians of people's valuable personal information. These policies also take a stance which tacitly assumes that students are cheaters. And just like any good witch hunt, if you have a problem with it, people start wondering what you have to hide.

An alternative approach: Hydrogen from algae. (PDF warning, scroll to page 4)

Ah, dammit, the Wikipedia page is easier.

Good question. What was it they said to the people who got screwed by Enron again?

They got damages from the directors, and others, (in addition to any possible jail terms). Same with WorldCom.

Most of the settlements were out of court though (eg. http://www.ucop.edu/news/archives/2002/aug27art1.h tm, http://www.law.stanford.edu/publications/stanford_ lawyer/issues/71/klausner.html).

The original post was talking about the copy right, or more technically the reproduction right.

Your post is talking about the distribution right -which is an entirely separate right to the reproduction right!

Now, the original post did not say expressly say that C had a exclusive right to distribute from B , although it may have implied it.

But, for the sake of argument, let's assume that C had been assigned distribution rights by B.

Does C now own all of B's copyright ? No. B still own's whatever rights they have NOT assigned.

A license to distribute, does not automatically equate to assignment of the entire copyright. A license to copy does not equate to a license to distribute.

Copyright is a bundle of rights that can be assigned and split up in a virtually unlimited number of ways.
from : http://www.ucop.edu/ott/crbasics.html

The term *copyright* actually refers to a bundle of rights that allow the originator of the work the exclusive right to:

• make copies of the work
• make derivative works based on the original work
• distribute the work
• perform the work publicly
• display the work in a commercial setting

In the case of visual works, the author also has the right to:

• claim authorship of the work (attribution)
• prevent others from attributing distorted works to original author (integrity)

Hope this helps.
darren

Bayh-Dole amendment: http://www.ucop.edu/ott/bayh.html

Private universities are not, to the best of my knowledge, non-profits.

Indeed they are. Universities are without, any exception I know of, chartered as non-profit, charitable institutions that are tax exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the US tax code. If they weren't charities, then you would not be able to deduct your donations to them from your taxes.

For example see:
http://vpf-web.harvard.edu/ofs/tax_services/gen_ex e.shtml
http://www.ucop.edu/raohome/cgmemos/83-33.html
http://www.stanford.edu/dept/legal/legalfacts_su.h tml

and especially:

http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pub/rrr/02/12.htm

So, my extensive analogy is not off at all.

If a University were organized as a private, for-profit enterprise, which is certainly conceivable, there would be no immorality in productizing knowledge -- by which I mean subjecting access to it so it can be sold for the highest possible profit. At least there would be no immorality that stems from its identity as a University: for profit entitites are first and formost profit making, and only secondarily whatever else they may be.

US News and World Report. 2005: #1 Berkeley

From 2000, but complete: Berkeley was the number 1 public university and 20th when counting in privates like Harvard and MIT. BTW, those two ranked numbers 2 and 3 behind number 1 California Institute of Technology aka CALTECH!

Giving away your fair-use copies CAN also be legal fair use as well in some circumstances; it can also be illegal copyright infringement in others. It is a legal grey area -- giving a copy to a relative is unquestionably OK. Giving a copy to 10 casual accquaintances is probably OK. Giving a copy to everyone in a class you are teaching might be OK. *SELLING* a copy is *NOT* OK.

"Fair use," in and of itself, is nowhere clearly defined in the copyright law, and its interpretation is largely left up to judges in individual cases. Whether or not a given case of suspected infringement constitutes Fair Use is determined on the basis of several factors, including the nature of the work infringed and the purpose for which it was copied.

I can assure you that several of the examples you cite are most certainly not Fair Use; checking a book out from the library does not give you the right to give a copy to a relative. ("Unquestionably"? Are you so naive you actually believe that?) And I certainly hope you don't teach any classes, because if you do, you might want to do a little bit of research before you find yourself in a mess of trouble with your boss.

Vectorian-

If you really are a UC student, you should educate yourself a little bit on how the University is funded.

Student fees (the stuff you pay) makes up about 10% of the University of California budget.

Since it is a public institution (no, your 10% does not make it private) they make their budget readily available to the public. In fact, you can view it here: UC Budget in PDF

Anyone who has seen the budget, and understands what students really pay, finds it pretty amusing when the students 'protest' on campus (whichever one you're on, it happens everywhere) the way their money is being spent. I'm not against the idea that the university should answer to the public, but students have an inflated sense of their (or their parents) financial contribution.

Why is it? Well, the University of California is not just an institution dedicated to teaching, but it also is an institution of research, outreach to the public, medicine for the state, etc. etc. When you walk through your science building, know that every faculty member there is trying desperately to get outside grants.

Go to your Ag department (if you are at Davis, Riverside, or Berkeley), and find out how much money comes from the USDA.

Find out how much money the Federal government gives your school before your friends protest the ROTC classes. We won't even talk about the Department of Energy- because that could be going away soon...

But list goes on, and on and on. Student fees are only a small part of the budget.

It's not uncommon for universities to spin off for-profit companies for research done on their campuses or to license patents they are assigned.

I had to stop this project, because I cannot afford to pay an army of lawyers every time someone wants to impose conditions on my work. Software developpers react very sensitively to this kind of terrorism. If European politicians legalise software patents in Europe, that will work as a disinscentive to software production in Europe.

What are you talking about, dread minerva? LANL isn't run by UC-Berkeley in particular, it's run by the University of California System. See the University of California office of the President -- "10 campuses, 5 medical centers and 3 national labs." Secondly, Sandia isn't run by the UC at all, it's run by Lockheed-Martin, and, as another poster pointed out, was previously run by AT&T. Jeeze, when one of your points is that there's a management problem, you'd think you'd actually check who the management is.

I doubt that there is any such contract between students and colleges in most situations. If you were taking a journalism course where part of the classwork was to write a publishable story and have it published in the school paper, or if you were working on a school journal and part of the work was to write a publishable article, it might be different. Neither of these is the situation in question with the guy at McGill.

That said, many universities have policies about ownership of patents developed by students. That is probably what you are thinking of. Here's the agreement that the University of California uses:
http://www.ucop.edu/ott/patentpolicy/patentac.html

It says nothing about the copyright of any papers written.

I just think of the lawsuit as a massive $50 million contribution from Microsoft to the university. We should probably name a computer lab, or maybe a e-toilet, after them...

At the Univ. of California, at least, we are not allowed to release student information such as grades to anyone, including parents, without the student's permission. See e.g. Section IV(B) of http://www.ucop.edu/ucophome/policies/bfb/rmp11.ht ml.

Bah! Broken link: here's the right one

If you do some reasearch in to Eolas, you'd find out that the patent in question was loaned to them by the University of California, the same people who own the copyright to BSD. If you go to their Q&A about the lawsuit, you can see all the details for yourself.

listed here.
Who would have thought the organization behind BSD would screw software developers the world over in this fashion?
Bill Joy is rolling in his grave now.

Wait. Who owns he patent? Eolas, Inc. or the University of California?

UC Press Release

FAQ

And now some stupid comments:

So maybe our old friends at Berkeley could help open source out? Or maybe BSD will finally use this to strike down Linux?

Wait. Who owns he patent? Eolas, Inc. or the University of California?

UC Press Release

FAQ

And now some stupid comments:

So maybe our old friends at Berkeley could help open source out? Or maybe BSD will finally use this to strike down Linux?

one of the answers is interesting.

Q. What is the patented technology that was at issue in the case?
A. The patented technology is a key component of the interactivity available on the Internet today. It allows web page developers to embed interactive programs in Web pages. A browser, equipped with the University of California's patented technology, is able to deliver that interactivity to the user. For example, the technology is used often with stock information, video players, games, virtual real estate tours and other interactive content on the Web. The patent allows the Web to be a platform for fully interactive embedded applications.

Sounds like this has broader implications for the Internet at large which the web community may regret. It is not patenting hyperlinks, but I think it gets close.

The irony here is that the improvement from within you mention is the direct DOD and DOE funding that the UC system in California gets for managing and supplying brains to Lawrence Livermore. The money that comes from funding munitions and nuclear bomb design gets funneled into the UC system of California. Ethically challenging but, it helps keep California and the rest of the US stocked with some of the best trained and funded evil geniuses in the world.

>we don't have companies refusing to make cars that go faster than 70mph

You would be surprised. :)

In many countries there are laws that prevent the sale of cars to regular consumers that go over about 300 km/h (can't remember the exact speed, sorry, cars aren't my specialty -- it was mentioned on Driver's Seat once or twice), and many manufacturers voluntarialy limit the speed of their cars (mostly because today's shitboxes are so light they'd fly off the road or blow up their shitty tires if they went over 160 km/h).

Fortunately, I'm told my Corrola doesn't have a governor. Not that it doesn't feel like it'll explode at 150 anyways, so it's a little pointless, but hey. "I dunna think she can withstand any more captin'! She'll tear herself aparrt!"

Copyright 2002 The Regents of the University of California All Rights Reserved

Permission to use, copy, modify and distribute any part of this SDSC-syslog program for educational, research and non-profit purposes, without fee, and without a written agreement is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice, this paragraph and the following paragraphs appear in all copies.

Those desiring to incorporate this SDSC-syslog program into commercial products or use for commercial purposes should contact the Technology Transfer Office, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093-0910, Ph: (619) 534-5815, FAX: (619) 534-7345.

IN NO EVENT SHALL THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BE LIABLE TO ANY PARTY FOR DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOST PROFITS, ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SDSC-syslog PROGRAM, EVEN IF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

THE SDSC-syslog SOFTWARE PROVIDED HEREIN IS ON AN "AS IS" BASIS, AND THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA HAS NO OBLIGATION TO PROVIDE MAINTENANCE, SUPPORT, UPDATES, ENHANCEMENTS, OR MODIFICATIONS. THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS AND EXTENDS NO WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER IMPLIED OR EXPRESS, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR THAT THE USE OF THE SDSC-syslog SOFTWARE WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY PATENT, TRADEMARK OR OTHER RIGHTS.

SDSC-syslog is developed by Tom Perrine at San Diego Supercomputer Center at the University of California, San Diego. Support for this effort is provided by Commerce Net (CN-NGI01-009).

After some not-so-trivial digging, I found the UC guidelines for releasing software. Essentially, any software written by a UC employee can be made "public" as long as procedures are followed and it's released for non-commercial use (with a license statement accompanying the software stating such).

Bash away at the software's non-GPLness, but I for one think it's pretty spiffy that anything a UC faculty, student of staff member writes can be given away, in source form, to the public. Anyone who works in the private sector who is allowed give away software written on the corporate dime can either speak up or hush up.

Anyway, cut 'em a little slack, would ya? They're trying.

-B

C. Student Work

A student work is a work produced by a registered student without the use of University funds (other than Student Financial Aid), that is produced outside any University employment, and is not a sponsored, contracted facilities, or commissioned work.

Ownership of copyrights to student works shall reside with the originator. (Emphasis added.)

You're absolutely right. There isn't much to debate here. All colleges and universities I know of have similar acceptable use policies and this is completely within their legal bounds. I am against the Patriot Act as much as the next guy but this simply isn't the "what the f@$#" article that everyone has been waiting for.

Relavent UCSD Policies

UC Business and Finance Bulletin G-29, Procedures for Investigating Misuse of University Resources Appendix C, Whistle Blower Policy

Acceptable Use Policies

When I attended SUNY Geneseo, the dean made me take down my personal web page. It consisted of a classified ad listing for students to buy/sell their textbooks. There was no money in it for me at all but the school used a broad interpretation of their rules to take it down anyway. The real reason was because the school has an agreement with a local book store saying that all book orders will be placed through that store and no where else. I think that is even more controversial than what we are talking about here but they still got a way with it. Small town politics.

Tree we did up in Philly
a clock tower- the hands are the antenna
ooh, ooh... that aint what you think it is are we good or what?
this was a government job

As you can see, I am not impressed. When something that people just havent noticed over years and years becomes news of the day, it's evident that people are just a bit too egocentrical to notice anything outside of their own little worlds. Sheesh. Hidden antennas.

not true. Read the law:

• It was understood that stimulation of the U.S. economy would occur through the licensing of new inventions from universities to businesses that would, in turn, manufacture the resulting products in the U.S.

The entire focus of Bayh-Dole was to stimulate the economy by getting corporations (primarily pharmaceutical companies) to license patents from universities and develop those patents into products (primarily drugs).

The ability to sell my science to Enron when the work is done is a HUGE motivator to spend 20 hours a day in the lab to get it done quickly to get paid quickly

Nice idea, but the scientists don't see a drop of that money - it all goes to the university. So the only motivation the scientist has is fame from publication, which is all s/he had before Bayh-Dole.

On reading this I became curious what my own institution's policies were, so I looked them up. FWIW:

First of all, my school maintains separate policies for copyright and patents. The copyright policy states that copyright of student works resides with the student. The patent policy makes no specific references to students, but says that anybody who uses university facilities or receives money from the uni (including gifts and grants) has to surrender patent rights to the uni, though they get a chunk of any royalties.

Since different aspects of software can fall under copyright or patent law, sounds like this must be mighty confusing for the CS folks. My best guess about what this means is that if you invent something, the university owns the invention, but you own whatever you say about the invention (and in the case of software, you own the specific code you wrote to implement the invention).

Since I'll eventually have to explain this to students and have basic understanding of the rules within UC, I'll chime in with what I think is going on. [IANAL]

A UC instructor has commented on his opinion on this matter and is correct on a number of points. Copyright is, by default, held by the instructor and not the university. The syllabus for the course is a legal document that sometimes grants students non-commerical duplication rights for personal use. But nweaver fails to address the case of handwritten notes.

There's a loophole here that I think the legislature is trying to plug:

Copyright law protects the preparation of derivative works.

Pertinent bits from the above:
"Only the owner of copyright in a work has the right to prepare, or to authorize someone else to create, a new version of that work."

Given that abridgements, compilations, dramas based on novels, sculptures based on drawings, and so on serve as examples of derivative works, lecture notes don't seem like much of a stretch.

So, I don't really think there is anything new here. However, there seems to be nothing stating definitively that lecture notes are in fact derivative works. So rather than test this in court over and over, legislating it would seem prudent. It's now in black and white, and penalties attached.

This strikes me as a pre-emptive move against problems that will likely crop up when the UC and CSU have to fully invest in distance learning. The 9 UC campuses have been warned that they'll have to absorb an additional 70,000 students over the next 10 years (the equivalent of Berkeley and UCLA combined), and the entire public higher education system in CA will have to take about 700,000 over what they currently serve (roughly the total population of Delaware).

Now, given that the dear taxpayers of California (of which I am one) are likely unwilling to build the equivalent of twenty major universities over the next 10 years, alternatives will have to be found - and distance learning will be a big component of that.

With 2 million students enrolled in higher ed in California in 2010, the low cost of distribution thanks to the internet, and the (hopefully) ease of electronic payment by that time, there's a hell of a big market here for people to tap for distribution of lecture notes, papers, and so on. Watch for more legislation to come...

Here's the link -- Berkeley isn't blocking access either.