RE: [Bodington-developers] Bodington licence

[Peter C. <Pet...@me...>]

> From: Alistair Young [mailto:ali...@sm...]=20
> is it the institutions or the developers who own the copyright on the=20
> code the developers contributed?

That depends on each developer's contract of employment with their
institution, and on how they have contributed.

A typical English academic contract says that the institution owns all
the work you do in your normal working hours; there is some English case
law that indicates that the institution also has a claim on work done in
your own time using the institution's equipment.  This probably covers
all of your work on Bodington, assuming UHI's contract of employment is
typical and that Scottish case law is similar.  However, if you've made
some tweaks in your own time using entirely your own equipment, the
situation may be muddier.  Some academic contracts are 'own-your-brain'
type contracts where the institution also lays claim to all such work;
others are not.

> if it 's the former, then presumably all we need do is ply our=20
> respective pointy haired ones with drink and get them to sign on the=20
> dotted line.

Yes.  Note that 'pointy-haired ones' may be up to and including the VC's
signature and the University seal on a document - we had to do this
(several times!) to get some IP out of University of Manchester into a
spin-out company.

> if it's the latter...

... then all you need to do is write a short letter and sign it.

		- Peter