Hi Ken, Randy.
One key thing was that the old IP Policy here was long over due for a rewrite. We have an energetic CEO who had it pegged for a while now, and an upcoming audit that required it done.
The next thing was me addressing the leadership team and presenting an argument that said we needed an IP Policy that enabled us to sample copyleft content. My argument was that our copyright statement was too restrictive (all rights reserved) and that it effectively prevented us from being able to copy and reuse content from the likes of FlickCC, Wikipedia et al . . .We needed a Policy that would enable staff to sample media from these sources and then have the flexibility to mark their remixes with the license required by the copyleft material. I think I even put an estimate on the amount of money this might save the Poly. This raised interest and got me on the IP Policy team where I pushed for the adoption of CC BY.
In the IP Policy meetings it was evident that the main players in the rewrite saw the sense in CC BY and the benefits of enabling copy and reuse with attribution of Polytech materials. Thanks to their intuition for CC BY we were able to discuss more novel treatment of the Policy, rather than getting bogged down with should we/shouldn't we kind of debates. It was a very encouraging team to work with. Interestingly, they had not heard of CreativeCommons before, but intuitively understood its benefits! Haven't met too many bosses like that before!
They also saw that it helped to solve a number of concerns such as if a staff member was to pick up and leave a big hole in the content we rely on, the Polytech would be able to refill that hole because the material would have been CC BY, meaning the Poly could reuse it. In the past, this risk of a staff member leaving and taking their files with them was managed by a rather draconian statement along the lines of, “you work for the Poly, we own your IP..” - which needless to say was a big concern to staff Using CC BY was a way to say to staff that they own their IP, but the Poly encourages the use of CC BY, and if restrictions are needed then come and talk about it.
It took about 5 months to get the Policy agreed on by broader staff, with the draft being redone about 3 or 4 times. Interestingly, staff input was very positive and constructive, and to my knowledge no staff had concerns with the CC BY clause. It seemed that most of the concern was to do with making sure that the Poly did not claim ownership over staff or student IP, but that it would be there if staff or students needed backup from the Poly if copyrights were breached outside the Poly. To that effect the Poly is a custodian of staff and student IP, but does not claim ownership.
So it would seem that the Poly was more than ready for such a Policy and that all I had to do was introduce the CC licenses which are more than ready for adoption, and make a lot of sense to anyone willing to think about it.
Hope that helps to answer the questions. In all it was about an 8 month process, with many things falling into place without too much issue. I was expecting a far greater fight. So full credit to the foresight and leadership from the CEO and dep CEO for their support, and to the Otago Poly staff who helped to make is clear and meaningful on all points of concern.
- 884 reads
