I could not have planned this any better if I tried. We have been learning about intellectual property rights and it was kind of just something that I had in the back of my mind and wasn't too worried about it on a personal level at this point. UNTIL...a connection was made between student life and my teacher life.
I was reading comments in a FB group that consists of tutors for the literacy company I work for, but the FB group is not affiliated with the company. We recently had to sign a new contract to continue working with this company and one of the things that changed pertains to intellectual property and materials that tutors create to use with the students during a tutoring session. The discussion naturally got a little heated, not within the group but tutors vs. company. Since there are no company reps in the group it was really more of a venting session than an actual discussion. Keep in mind, tutors are contract employees, not direct employees of the tutoring company.
The new contract states that the Company has ownership rights to anything the tutor creates that is related to reading instruction while the tutor is under contract with the Company. So if I make an activity about sorting words with short vowels, the company now owns that activity. If the activity is an extension of a company-created activity, using their materials, I can understand that. However, according to contract, I can make something completely from scratch, not at all related to a specific story or lesson within the company-provided materials, and the company says they still own it. None of the tutors were asking for compensation for the materials, but why should the company own these materials? Many teachers either sell their materials or freely share materials they create with other teachers, but this new contract would prohibit that. I think that's a huge disservice to the tutors and students who are ultimately the ones who benefit most when teachers collaborate.
What do you think? Should a company own the rights to materials a tutor creates on their own time for their own use with students?
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