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Statement of Position on Intellectual Property
By Claude Whitmyer, founder of MeaningfulWork.Com, and co-founder of The University of the Future, LLC (FutureU™).
Copyright 1994-2024 by The University of the Future, LLC
Official Copyright Notice
Unless otherwise noted, all content on meaningfulwork.com or any other FutureU Web page or Web site are © 1994-2024 by Claude Whitmyer and Gail Terry Grimes. All rights reserved. Published by The University of the Future, LLC, aka FutureU™. (For example, in the Community Guidelines, we explicitly state that all postings to any virtual communities are the property of the author of each posting. This would be true for blog post comments, or any other discussion forums we sponsor) For information about or permission to use our intellectual property see our Copyright and Trademark statement.
The Intellectual Property Issue
The rapid growth of multimedia and its distribution through the Internet has created a high level of uncertainty regarding the interpretation of previously established intellectual property law. Only in the last decade or two have the courts begun to establish new interpretations of trademark, patent, and copyright laws as applied to movies, audio recordings, and software programs. The courts are still in the process of interpreting trademark, patent, and copyright laws as applied to the Internet and other electronic media. It is still unclear in many areas how trademark, copyright, and patent law will evolve so as to promote the progress and transfer of knowledge and technology through the Internet. There is no doubt that law in this area will change in both the near and distant future.
Because intellectual property rights are a major driving force incentivizing creativity and adoption of innovation, The University of the Future, LLC (FutureU™) is committed to protecting its own and others’ intellectual property rights as a powerful way to support a robust and inclusive economy.
At the same time, we are committed to the concept that paradigm shifts in the areas of economics, production, ownership, and creativity require careful rethinking and reinterpretation of intellectual property laws. We believe that it is in the best interests of everyone to act ethically in accordance with both the letter and the spirit of law.
FutureU's Position
(and, therefore, that of meaningfulwork.com)
At FutureU (and therefore, meaningfulwork.com) we believe that artists, craftspersons, inventors, makers, musicians, songwriters, and writers in general, or any other individuals have the right to receive fair value from those who adapt, adopt, consume, or otherwise use their ideas and creations. Beyond the fact that intellectual property rights represent a basic building block of democracy, these rights are the sole means for many to make a living. Therefore, it is FutureU’s current position, that it is the responsibility of each individual to respect the intellectual property rights of every other individual including but not limited to clients, staff, or participants in any FutureU course, discussion, forum, event, meeting or any other service or exchange. And that original works are the intellectual property of their creator(s) unless otherwise stated in writing. This means that use of such property requires either licensure or written permission of some other kind.
FutureU also considers it the responsibility of all clients of and participants in its services to become familiar with the basic tenets of the law and with the issues in areas where reinterpretations are being made concerning online manners, ethics, privacy, intellectual property, copyright, fair use, and public domain. You can begin this familiarization process by visiting the FutureU pages on “Netiquette” and “Public Domain.”
What to Do
Copyright notations for intellectual property contributed to any FutureU course, discussion forum, event, meeting or any other service should include the names of all entities involved in the creation of the intellectual property (document, image, concept, etc.) such as peers, clients, students, or whomever. It is acceptable to name organizations as copyright holders, while crediting individual participants in the text of written material, so long as all participants in the creation of the intellectual property agree. The most common form of attribution is structured as follows:
Copyright 1234 by Firstname Lastname.
“1234” would be replaced by the year of copyright.
Regarding specific copyright information for meaningfulwork.com see
Copyright and Trademark Information.
Contact Information
How to Reach Us
Claude Whitmyer c/o FutureU
601 Van Ness Avenue, Suite E, Box 433
San Francisco, California, 94102, USA
voicemail: 415-648-2667 — fax: 415-520-5416
email: Use our contact page