Several California State University and California University campuses are facing a new kind of Internet piracy – the illegal selling of notes that students take during class.
Students attending schools in either system are prohibited by the California Education Code from selling the notes they take in class. Of course, that hasn’t stopped some from doing just that. And, the internet has made it easier than ever for them to find customers.
Students today can go to websites such as noteutopia.com or notehall.com and post their notes for others to buy. Some students have ignored the Education Code and believe they own the rights to their notes, saying the state should not decide what they can and cannot do with them.
“I feel that the students have the right to sell their notes. It’s freedom of speech,” said CSUB sophomore Manuel Gutierrez. “If they want to sell their notes, they can sell their notes.”
But, some professors don’t believe because a student physically wrote the notes, that he or she “owns” them. “When we say notes, what are we talking about?” asked CSUB Communications Lecturer Chris Cruz-Boone. “That’s a transcription of what I say word for word. Those are my ideas.”
CSUB spokesperson Robert Meszaros says the idea of intellectual property is at the center of the debate between students and professors. “Who has the rights? Is it the intellectual property of the instructor or is it the student who takes the notes?” asked Meszaros.
But, some professors say they’re concerned with more than just someone else profiting from what they believe is their intellectual property. Cruz-Boone says she’s worried someone might misquote her during a lecture and then attribute that misinformation to her for the online world to see.
“I don't want to be associated with anything discriminatory because a student didn't understand my lecture,” said Cruz-Boone.
But, one professor is much less concerned with students selling their notes online, saying he believes the business of selling class notes is not viable in the long run.
“I consider it to be irrelevant,” said CSUB Sociology professor Gonzalo Santos.
Santos says with more and more professors uploading their class presentations to the web and even their lectures to their own websites or Youtube, the demand for student notes is waning. “It's not a business that has a lot of future,” said Santos.
Meanwhile, Meszaros says the issue isn’t as pronounced at the Bakersfield campus as it is at other public universities across California. But, he says it’s certainly an issue the university is very much aware of.
According to Meszaros, anyone caught selling notes online could face the possibility of expulsion.
