Hello everyone,

I have a long-term plan to have my own school. In the mean time, I want to prepare some teaching materials. I am thinking to hire some instructors to help me for the preparation. I will ask each instructor to prepare specific modules in the their area of expertize. For example mathematics, I may ask one instructor to prepare only Algebra part and another Geometry part and the like. Then i will hire some chief editors to edit , combine, and form a complete teaching material. I, myself, also will participate in the preparation. If I get it done in the above procedure, who own/s the the material/s? could the instructors claim that they own a part of the material? It is i think some legal issue but I want to open it for discussion here.

Thank you everyone,

Infinity2012.

The devil is in the details.

Are these instructors your employees, are they just contractors, what does the contract say, what country are you in, etc.

Even if your lawyer says that you own the stuff based on your country's laws, another country's laws might say the copyright is that of the instructors and cannot be given away. You need to talk to lawyers in the specialized field of Intellectual Property and Copyright and International Copyright law before word one.

I would think it would depend on how the contracts are worded.

In the states if a photographer is hired to take certain photographs.
The copyrights are his/hers unless the contract says otherwise.

In Canada the person who hired the photographer owns the copyright by default.
So photographers in Canada have to much more carefull about the wording of contracts.

But some jurisdictions do not recognize some terms of some contracts.

Thank you for your suggestions! I still make the topic open for further info. If anyone has experience in this matter or know some related issues, please give me a shot.

Infinity 2012.

Indeed, under German law you cannot give away some aspects of copyright. I remember reading about a film company that got bitten by this, when you would think that they could have the benefit of good advice.