Cripes, Couldn't Copyright Law Be Kept Out Of This Mess?
I teach at a public university in the South, in a climate where a statement like: "We are all equal in God's eyes, and we should all be equal in the eyes of the law," might be considered anti-Christian (because the God of some religions around here hates the homos) and traitorous (because some powerful people in these parts seem to feel that if homos receive the full rights of American citizenship, the terrorists win, see e.g. this), so believe me when I say I absolutely find stuff like this alarming:
"An alumni group dedicated to "exposing the most radical professors" at the University of California at Los Angeles is offering to pay students $100 to record classroom lectures of suspect faculty."
In fact, I was made aware years ago by some of my students that other students were using their laptops to secretly record my classes. I assume it still happens, and I don't have any particular belief or hope that my University would rise to my defense if I got "exposed as radical," so it's nice to see UCLA take an interest in the welfare of its faculty, but carefully consider the final sentence of this article excerpt.
...."Jones' site describes his campaign as "dedicated to exposing UCLA's most radical professors" and his list of the university's "worst of the worst" singles out only professors he says hold left-wing views.
"Jones said he would accept recordings only from students whose professors consented in writing to have their lectures taped. And students would be paid $100 only if they furnished complete recordings of every class session, as well as detailed lecture notes and all other teaching materials from the class.
"Jones, who also is offering to pay $50 for only notes and materials, said so far one student has signed up to participate and two others have expressed interest.
"UCLA spokesman Phil Hampton said the university planned to send Jones a letter warning him that faculty hold copyrights to all their course materials and that his campaign encouraged students to violate school policy." [Emphasis added].
I don't think that invoking "copyrights" as instrumental tools of censorship is very helpful here, to say the least. How about robustly preserving a climate of free inquiry and academic freedom instead? Because any scholar ought to bristle at the idea that copyrights can be employed to intimidate or silence critics.
In a similar vein Jennifer Granick aptly criticized evolutionists for using copyright law to censor Intelligent Design proponents here. As laudable as the ends might be, any "means" that corrupt copyright principles must be resisted.