Existing case law provides that in the absence of evidence of agreement to the contrary, a teacher, rather than the institution for which he or she teaches, owns the common law copyright to his or her lectures.
This bill would prohibit any business, agency, or person from preparing, causing to be prepared, giving, selling, transferring, or otherwise distributing or publishing, any contemporaneous recording of an academic presentation, as defined.
The bill would permit any court of competent jurisdiction to grant relief that it finds necessary to enforce its provisions, including the issuance of an injunction and the recovery, from a nonstudent, of court costs, attorney’s fees, and a civil penalty, as specified.
The bill would request the Regents of the University of California and the governing boards of private postsecondary institutions, would require the Trustees of the California State University, and would authorize the governing board of each community college district to develop policies to prohibit unauthorized recording and to adopt or provide for the adoption of specific regulations governing a violation of these provisions by students, along with applicable penalties for a violation of the regulations, and to also adopt procedures to inform all students of those regulations.
The provisions of this bill, under existing law, would only apply to the Regents of the University of California to the extent that the regents, by appropriate resolution, make those provisions applicable.