Blog - /Personal

Before filling out my employment application for the TA position, I asked whether Purdue would try to assert ownership of changes I make to the Emacs packages I contribute to. I had to go about 3 links up the chain of authority, but found someone who knew the details. Here they are.

1. Purdue can assert ownership if you are a student and use their machines heavily to test or create your software.
2. Purdue can assert ownership if you are a non-student full-time employee, even if you don't use their machines to work on your software.
3. If you're distributing a project on their webserver, they might try to claim ownership.
4. If you're a student employee doing cutting edge research, or anything software-related that might conceivably make Purdue lots of money, they might try to claim ownership.
5. If you are a student making a project that is directly taken from your classwork, Purdue may try to claim ownership.

The first one is the only one that could apply to me, but I do my work over an SSH tunnel to my home machine. The guy I talked with said that I didn't need to worry too much about that kind of use.

If any of these conditions apply, it's best to go to their Copyright Office (or whatever it is) on campus and apply for ownership papers for your work.