Excelsior's copyright victory

University Business, Jan, 2007 by Alana Klein

OUR WEB CULTURE IS BUILT UPON an informal code of ethics where the "do not steal" edict applies. But, as Excelsior College (N.Y.) now knows, not everyone follows this code. After battling a three-year copyright lawsuit against Professional Development Systems School of Health Services, a California-based educational corporation, and its owner Charles M. Frye, Excelsior has come out on top. The jury found the defendants guilty of infringing copyrighted questions and answers on several of Excelsior's credit-bearing nursing exams and content guides and awarded the College $7.8 million in reparations.

Despite the positive outcome for Excelsior, there are still unanswered questions. It's still unclear exactly how Frye gained access to the information, though it is known that he had tutored Excelsior students. Frye did admit that his business was almost exclusively based around Excelsior's program, says Bill Stewart, interim vice president for enrollment management at Excelsior.

"We never expected this to happen," says Stewart. "We had all of the standard security procedures in place and we took all of the right precautions. But you can't prevent somebody from remembering information and sharing it."

Now, the question is: How will Excelsior and other online institutions protect their course content and trade secrets? Stewart is still a believer in the honor code. "We have a stringent academic honesty policy. If we find that people have violated this policy by cheating or stealing exam questions, we will take action," he says.

Excelsior's case serves as an important example for online IHEs and other institutions that publish proprietary content on the web. Perhaps it will also serve as a deterrent for would-be infringers, Stewart says.

"They now know that if they're caught, they put themselves in jeopardy of a significant penalty."