Teaching is fundamental in academic life, and faculty put a lot of work into creating original lessons and courses.  U.S. copyright law generally states that employers owns the rights to work produced by employees while on the job, but in higher ed, there are categories of intellectual property that are typical exempted from this work-for-hire doctrine -- textbooks are a classic example.  

This practice, which has served both institutions and faculty well, is more custom than contract, though, and technology has a way of disrupting business as usual.  The culture and customs of the university are now bumping against the culture and power of the Internet.   

This issue of control and access to course content is imminently important to online education and broadly important to all higher education in the 21st century.   At Wired Ivy, we're working on a series of upcoming episodes exploring this issue and the impact on faculty, and we're asking listeners to share their experiences and perspectives on intellectual property policies!