Universities, the GPL and Patents?

nonlnear asks: "I'm about to finish a PhD in Mathematics and am starting to realize that I am not a big fan of my university's policy about inventions, patents, software, and the like. The gist of it is: you invent while working here => we own everything => we will patent everything. I am planning on a career in academia, but am very conflicted about this way of doing things. What Universities out there will allow me to publish (otherwise patentable) software under the GPL?"

Comments

Most Will...You Just Need To Know How To Start

[Noksagt]

The easiest way to force something under the GPL or other copyleft licenses is to make a derivative work from GPLed code. So consider using the GNU Scientific Library or something similar as your base. Your University will most likely not make you rewrite it and, if they have a legal department, will most likely not ask you to violate the GPL.

For a good piece on GPL in academia, see Releasing Free Software if you work at a University by Richard Stallman.

Re:Most Will...You Just Need To Know How To Start

[Noksagt]

You, ah, DO realize that using GPL'd code without legal authority to release it is copyright infrigement

It appears to me that the OP wants to be a post doc or a professor at a University. Typically these people don't have the University administration telling them what to work on. Yes, there are agreements with the administration & with the funding agencies. But there is still a lot of latitude in what they work on. How many academic contracts can you show me which prevent you from starting with copyleft code?

The GPL itself allows you to make derivative works. It just dictates how you distribute those works.

otherwise known in the academic field as plagarism--correct?

Absolutely not. Plagiarism would be violating the GPL. Making a derivative work is not a violation. The ony thing you should have to worry about is the contracts with your University and funding agencies.

Your university or employer can and should expel/fire you if you try and force them to use a copyleft license they have no intention of using.

It is pragmatically different in the corporate world in that they DO force both a license and what you work on down your throat.

Just as they can and should expel/fire you if you try and submit "Noksagt Windows XP" as your final project.

That would be violating a trademark. Your working on GPL software is not breaking copyrights.

Still, asking both your University and funding agency for permission to start with GPLed code to accelerate production (and therefore getting more papers out sooner & research done sooner) is a good idea. Most Universities and funding agencies don't view every software project as something which will be sold & see papers & academic discoveries as the real ends. They will therefore be likely to give you permission so you can do your job.

Re:Most Will...You Just Need To Know How To Start

[Noksagt]

Plagarism is when you publish or submit something and call it your own.

How, exactly, are you claiming the GPLed code as your own? Many academic papers I read in which the author created a derivative work from GPLed software make it explicit as to what there work is built on & I don't recall saying you should claim authorship for anyhting you didn't write.

Making a derivitive work, giving it someone else, and not using the GPL *IS* a violation of the GPL.

And that is why I (and Stallman before me) said it is a good way to release software under the GPL. If you start with GPLed software, you have two choices: keep it in house & don't release it (which many Universities and funding agencies are O.K. with) or release it under the GPL.

And if you have an agreement that keeps you from doing that,

As I said, I haven't seen many agreements to that effect in academia.

How many academic contracts can you show me which prevent you from starting with copyleft code?

How many academic contracts can you show me that prohibit the teacher from shitting on thier desk? Or stealing money from the administrator's pocket?

Oh. I guess you haven't seen many agreements to that effect either.

Re:Most Will...You Just Need To Know How To Start

[Urgoll]

I do work in academia, and one thing I've noticed is that more and more funding agencies (NSF among others) is that they are more likely to fund your proposal if the proposal states that the software created by the project will be released under an open source license. Open Source is good for the funding agency, as it means that the research will be more widely disseminated, and so will have a bigger bang for the buck. It can also be folded into the 'educational outreach' part of the proposal.

Once the funding agency has agreed to fund a proposal which stated that the software would be released under an open source license, this thing goes into the contract between the agency and the university, and you're in the clear.

The university would be really stupid to refuse such a contract - in fact, I've never heard of a university refusing money. :-)

Re:Not mutually exclusive

[MrResistor]

In particular, the GPL ... only allows non-commercial software to use your copyrighted/patented work,

Please stop spreading this lie. "Commercial", "proprietary", and "closed source" all have seperate, and distinct, meanings, and the GPL only prohibits the last two.

University of Toronto

[baronben]

I'm in the process of writing a report for the University of Toronto and recommendations for releasing research as open source. I was told not to even concentrate on convincing them to do it, they're already leaning towards that, but rather to make recommendations on licences. As far as I can tell, no department at U of T says that they own research, and profs and grad students generally have a free hand to release their research as they want.

U of T is also home to the Knowledge Media Design Institute, which is a huge proponent of Open Source. This year they ran a lecture series called Open Source | Open Access which was entirely on the place of open source within the academic community. They're also offering grants to students to work on open source software!

I'm not sure how good the math program is here, as the maths frighten me. From walking around campus, I do know that we have something called the "Fields Institute for Mathematics", which seems very official and such not. Give it a look, there are worse places to be than downtown Toronto.

Give me an e-mail if you want some more info on U of T

Re:University of Toronto - I'm sorry

[baronben]

On further research, it looks like I was wrong. According to U of T's Copyright policy the university holds the copyright to anything "created by an Author in the course of the Author's employment by the University." On the other hand, "For the purposes of this Policy, research and instruction, or the creation of instructional Works, including Instructional Software, undertaken by members of the University's Teaching Staff or librarians shall not be deemed to be made or undertaken in the course of their employment by the University." This leaves me thoroughly confused, which is about par for the course.

However, in another twist in this dramatic story " Computer Software that is not Instructional Software will be deemed to be an "Invention" under the Inventions Policy, and the rights and obligations with respect to such Computer Software and the disposition of revenues therefrom shall be in accordance with the Inventions Policy." This Invention Policy says that the university essentially everything you make in your office.

So, we're no different than anyone else, but damn if we don't have the best student union in the greater Canadas.