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Re: SUO: Bob's Questions on copyright

Frank,
Please actually read the section from the IEEE-SA manual you quote below.  It says that the chair must sign an agreement that the proposed standard of the SUO is a "work for hire" .  A declaration by a committee chair does not deprive individual contributors of their IP rights.  They must explicitly grant those rights themselves in a well formed agreement.  To the extent that the chair has received the explicit permission of the contributors to use their IP this provision may work.

Quoting from my previous note of 10/30/01:

SUO members should ask themselves if they contributed and if they signed an IP release.  If not, the IEEE has a partial copyright.  You own a part of it.  If this is just a general description of how something should be made in order to conform, you don't own much.  If it is code (specific axioms, etc.) you own whatever it is worth - IMHO still not much.  The issue is that whatever its value might be vendors will not use it without clear rights.
SUO contributors might have contributed new work which, if an agreement was in force,  might be considered "work for hire" or they may have contributed material that they have previously copyrighted (it is very simple to copyright material).  In either case if there is no agreement they own the IP and can only release through an agreement.
 
The last paragraph states that the chair is responsible for receiving written permission to use all copyrighted material (in order to perfect the agreement he signed - not the members - at the time of the PAR)..  Regardless of when this is done, if written permission (agreement) is not received from all contributors they retain the rights to their IP and the SUO or IEEE does not have a copyright on their material.

This is pretty basic stuff regardless of whether you consider it from an IP law perspective or a "standards process" perspective.

Anyway, thanks for the quote.

Bob

Frank Farance wrote:

At 00:47 2001-10-31 -0800, Robert Grayson Spillers wrote:
> Jim,
> Your responses show a remarkable lack of understanding of basic IP law.  No one can legally give up their rights to any IP unless they do so explicitly.  Although one can do so verbally (still it must be explicit), no company would accept a release unless it is in writing.  Certain elements are required for any contract (copyright release or other contract) to be valid and what you (and Frank) describe does not contain the necessary elements.
>
> ...
> Who gave you the information about IEEE copyrights - particularly "work for hire"?
>
> Bob

Bob-

Like most of your claims (processes, procedures, Robert's Rules, etc.), this is another one where you "shoot from the hip" and don't properly understand/research your claims.

I've attached the excerpt below from the IEEE-SA Standards Board Operations Manual.  The Chair, Jim Schoening, has made it very clear what the IEEE procedures are ... and he has been following them faithfully.  (Actually, Jim has been doing better than that: the copyright statements are due at the *end* of the project, but Jim is getting them much earlier than required by the P&Ps.)

This kind of IP status (WG participation is "work for hire", etc.) is common in most accredited standards committees ... IEEE is no exception.  I think if you were more familiar with standards work, you would recognize that this is normal practice.

-FF

-------------------------------------------------------

6. Copyright, trademark, and patents

6.1 Copyright

All IEEE standards are copyrighted by the IEEE under the provisions of the US Copyright Act.

6.1.1 Project Authorization Request (PAR)

As part of the initial PAR procedure, the committee or working group shall appoint a chair (or official reporter) who shall sign a Copyright Agreement acknowledging that the proposed standard constitutes a "work made for hire" as defined by the Copyright Act, and that as to any work not so defined, any rights or interest in the copyright to the standards publication is transferred to the IEEE.  Except as noted below, the IEEE is the sole copyright owner of all material included in the standard.

At the time of PAR completion, any previously copyrighted material intended for inclusion shall be identified.  The working group is responsible for receiving written permission to use all copyrighted material prior to RevCom submittal.  Sample form letters are available in the IEEE Standards Style Manual.

-------------------------------------------------------

_______________________________________________________________________
Frank Farance, Farance Inc.     T: +1 212 486 4700   F: +1 212 759 1605
mailto:frank@farance.com        http://farance.com
Standards, products, services for the Global Information Infrastructure

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