Intellectual Property?

The selective nature of Harvard academics has been called into question by the double-edged sword of the World Wide Web, the great democratizer of information and violator of copyrights. Specifically, Versity.com, an on-line "knowledge center" that collects lecture notes from colleges across the country, has begun this fall to have Harvard courses featured on its site, paying Harvard students to summarize the lectures they attend and then posting lecture notes on the Web to anyone who desires them and is willing to register.

Versity.com claims that the site is providing an important service that will enhance the study habits of students at Harvard and beyond, professors nationwide who find their lectures summarized online say that the service not only provides inaccurate information but represents a copyright infringement on their intellectual property. Versity.com makes its money from running advertising banners on its Web site alongside the lecture notes, which are free to view. Regardless of the legal status of the endeavor, it is unethical for outside corporations to make money off the presentations of Harvard professors, and we find it more concerning that students seek to profit from the professors' academic work.

The Harvard student handbook states that "Students who sell lecture or reading notes, papers, or translations or who are employed by a tutoring school or term paper company [...] may be required to withdraw." This regulation is intended to protect both professors and students: professors' work cannot be represented (or misrepresented) for profit without permission and compensation, and students cannot unfairly gain from their transcribing of another's ideas in an academic context.

Harvard demands that all tutoring done for money be done through the apparatus of the Bureau of Study Counsel, so that we as equals in the pursuit of knowledge do not exploit our fellow students. These restrictions are meant to protect the intellectual pursuits that Harvard at its best represents.

We caution students and administrators to understand that a prohibition on selling work or aid to others, however, is not a prohibition on sharing knowledge between students. Copying lecture notes for a friend who missed class or gathering to prepare for a midterm by reviewing the readings and positing potential questions should not represent a violation of this policy. Harvard has very specific rules governing the collaboration of students on assigned work, but sharing notes does not and should not fall under the category of doing concrete work that will be submitted for another.

In fact, if a student out of the goodness of her heart wanted to share all her own notes and papers on a Web site, without collecting advertising dollars or being part of any other commercial venture, this too should be seen as a valid contribution to the academic community. Students should only be disciplined when they are violating the academic code by receiving money for academic work without authorization.

The University is right to stress the intellectual property rights of its professors and protect our academic community by prohibiting the sale of academic information to Web sites like Versity.com. When properly understood, these restrictions will help strengthen the bonds between students and professors and among fellow students. They will foster more cooperation and therefore more education within the Harvard academic community. These privileges, after all, are what we are paying to receive.