Who owns the code?

[Lagz]

I just wondered, if I write some code as part of a project at uni, can I post the code on my website as if it's mine? I did write it anyway, lol. I'm just sure I heard somewhere that it's copyrighted to the uni.

Thanks

Chances are they wont care anyway. Just do it.

 

[Joobs]

At brunel i knew a couple students who created final projects which they used to set up their own businesses. But i seem to remember some stupid stuff about the uni giving the rights back to the student.

 

[Jet]

, no it's not, not necesarily at any rate. a contract is an agreement, nothing more. it can be verbal or written down.
true, it can say absolutely anything. but just because a contract is agreed (in writing, with signatures etc) does not make it legally enforceable.
Not all agreements are enforceable.

it's quite possible to form a legally binding contract which contains some terms which are unenforceable.

to be fair until someone takes a situation like this to the courts we don't really know.

i still suspect that as UK students are now self financing, they would have a legal claim to the IPR on their own work, but only the courts can decide.

i suppose a student could attach a GNU licence to all submitted code. do you think that the uni's would still have a claim if they did that?

'When a document containing contractual terms is signed then in the absence of fraud or misrepresentation, the party signing it is bound.'

That's the courts saying that btw. Simply put, if you sign a document saying your code belongs to the uni, then it belongs to the uni. I think you would struggle to argue semantics. It is very common for people to assign the copyright to their work to another. It just so happens that if you want to use the universities equipment and help they get the credit.

 

[theMAD2]

It's probably not a big deal, I'm not going to be using it to make money, I just want to publish the code on my website to help other people. I guess the only thing my uni has to worry about is people taking my code and using it to complete assignments (if they re-use past assignments, that is).