Take note: A bitter war is brewing between the halls of academia and the channels of cyberspace.
It's not exactly a brawl between professors and geeks, but the issue of paying students to take and sell class notes online is getting a little heated.
Spurred by angry professors, some University of California schools have threatened legal action against companies that hire note-taking students.
And at least one company, which does not even post any UC class notes but which has a vested interest in luring students to its notes-filled site, has pledged to fight the universities.
"We know wholeheartedly that what we are doing is, first and foremost, legal, and secondly, is going to help foster learning and education throughout the many colleges and universities at which we have a presence," said Craig Green, co-founder of Study24-7.com.
Sites like Study24-7.com, Versity.com and StudentU.com pay student note-takers to post notes from university courses on the Web.
Any student can access the notes for free; Study24-7.com, for one, makes its money through ad revenue.
"I think that traditional brick-and-mortar universities are going to have to change as a result of this technology revolution," Green said.
But change comes slowly at many universities. In fact, the debate over publicly accessed class notes has long existed on college campuses. The conflict has now evolved from a local to global controversy as companies take advantage of the as-yet-unregulated world of the Web.
"When a student or non-student copies faculty lectures for the purpose of selling them, that's a commercial use and that's a violation of our rules," said UC-Berkeley attorney Mike Smith.
And some sites may be violating state or federal copyright laws, Smith said. In California, "copyright law gives some protection to [intellectual property] works that are not necessarily in a fixed form," Smith said.
Federal law only protects works that are delivered in a fixed form, such as a pre-written speech.
"For all these reasons we're in the process of telling these companies to stop," Smith said.
He said UC-Berkeley and UCLA -- the two largest campuses in the UC system -- are asking sites to cease and desist.
Study24-7.com struck back on Tuesday, issuing an email-distributed press release with a "Silicon Valley" dateline and this subject line: POSTING LECTURE NOTES ON THE WEB IS LEGAL.
"Despite threats from professors, Study24-7.com will continue to provide college students access to much needed services," the release said.
The sites claim they are enhancing students' educational experience.
"It helps them fund their education and it will help them become better students," said Oran Wolf, founder of StudentU.com. "Probably out of everyone they'll be the most prepared."
Added Study24-7.com's Green: "What we do on our Web site is enabling classmates to communicate with one another through virtual study sessions."
But it's not just the legal aspect that bothers some professors.
"It's clearly unethical and I think it borders on academic dishonesty," said Andrew Bergnstein, a marketing instructor at Penn State University whose lecture notes are posted on the Web at Study24-7.com.
"If you're willing to be paid to take notes and turn those notes over to a company that's going to make a profit, it starts to raise in my mind the ethics of the gatherers and of the people who go to these sites," Bergnstein said.
What's more, Study24-7.com's model is to pay students based on traffic, meaning that students are encouraged to market their own notes and the Web site on their campus.
He accused the sites of taking information that tuition-paying students are entitled to and deriving a profit from that content.
But, countered Allison Stanley, a junior public relations major at Louisiana State University, "It's totally ethical."
Stanley, employed by Study24-7.com as a note-taker for three classes, said her site "looks professional."
In Study24-7.com's press release, co-founder Brian Maser wrote, "We emphasize to the students that they only post notes, graphs, and outlines that are their original work of authorship. They must not copy nor scan [something] word-for-word."
Said Stanley: "Some professors may not like it too much, but it's really a helpful review," Stanley said.
She added that the site has helped her learn business skills and make money in the process.
Other students are not as sold on the idea.
"I would take a look at it but I wouldn't rely on it," said Domingo Sanchez, a psychology major at the University of San Francisco. "I'd rely on my own notes."
"If you're too lazy to take your own notes it's a good thing," said San Francisco State University student Eduardo Fierro. "Some people probably take advantage of it."
And one professor's attitude was simply not to fight it.
"I don't think there's anything we can do about it," said LSU professor Hugh Buckingham, pointing out that notes have been available to students for many years. "How do you control the Web?"
"Maybe a blanket statement should be made to incoming students to be warned or be aware that if they get the notes online they may be incorrect," Buckingham said. "Take them, read them, and study them at your own risk."
