High-Tech Authorship: A Balancing Act

Gerald Barnett strives to help faculty realize the value of their ideas and work in the marketplace.

Many faculty, staff and students at the UW are creating digital media-based works such as CD-ROM tutorials, videotapes, and Web sites. Gerald Barnett, software licensing officer in the UW's Office of Technology Transfer, sees this as an exciting trend.

"Academic authors in the past have had to rely on the publishing industry to edit, manufacture, and distribute their work," explains Barnett. "Now we have the opportunity to shape the information infrastructure, including the connection between education and commercial enterprises, for the next generation of students, instructors, and researchers."

New computing resources on campus have opened up more opportunities to develop a wide range of digital media-based works. Comparatively small investments in hardware, software, and skill development can put almost anyone in the publishing business.

"There's lots to explore and try out," says Barnett, "and faculty, staff, and students are doing just that."

Mixing Education and Commerce

The challenge of these new opportunities is to avoid even the appearance of inappropriate use of university computing resources. Activities need to be consistent with the university's mission, which does not include private use for personal gain at public expense.

"Academic freedom, in a nutshell, is not enterprise freedom," says Barnett, "but sometimes the line is not entirely clear."

Various state laws and university policies govern use of computing resources. On the one hand, these policies are intended to protect the public trust by limiting personal use of resources as well as outside consulting and other commercial involvement by employees. On the other, they seek to promote public benefit by balancing university interest with private initiative and benefit.

Barnett and other staff with the Office of Technology Transfer routinely assist individuals in developing new software and digital media initiatives within the framework of this regulatory environment.

Protecting Rights Through Careful Management

• Copyrights protect original works of authorship from the time they are created and "fixed" in some tangible format.

• Performance rights include the right of privacy and the right of publicity, both of which may come into play in digital media and other audiovisual materials that make use of a person's likeness or voice.

"People new to publications and marketing might create impressive works and see them distributed worldwide via the Web without ever thinking about the rights involved," says Barnett.

	Reaching agreement on how to share control of creative works among all the players is a key issue for Barnett.

In the past, academics relied heavily on the publication industry's system of checks and balances. New works went through several layers of review, including staff editors and publishing house legal counsel, so the problems of fair use and infringement, performance rights, and marketing strategies were identified well before the products reached the marketplace.

The new publishing and communications technologies, while opening new ways to exchange information and do commerce, may bypass this system. If so, the burden of clearing rights and obtaining legal review falls to the self-publishing authors.

Perhaps most difficult for new authors is marketing. "You can miss your target audience completely and end up stuck in a poor arrangement with an unenthusiastic distributor," says Barnett.

"A good marketing and distribution approach will retain reasonable control of your product while making it available to those who want it," he says. "The goal is to do it in a way that yields lasting benefit to everyone involved.

"In seeking to deploy works with a minimum of overhead, you may end up unfairly exploiting other people's materials and rights," says Barnett, "or you may end up giving up more control over your own materials than you should."

Technology Transfer Help

OTT's Software Transfer unit reorganized two years ago to include Patrick Jones as a software technology manager. In January 1998, at the invitation of the Washington Technology Center, the unit relocated to Fluke Hall.

For contact information, visit the OTT Web page.