[Vp-integration-subgroup] Licensing issues

[Jacob Barhak]

Thanks Robin, Thanks Yaling, Thanks Tomas,

You gave examples of 3 institutions and how they address some licencing
issues. Notice that sometimes universities will have different policies for
students, faculty and staff as well as some grey areas such as post-docs.

I was at the University of Michigan at several as a postdoc and as staff
and read their regulations multiple times and the rules do change from one
category to another. Moreover, in the University of Michigan they had an
office called Tech Transfer and in it specialists that deal with licensing
and patents. This shows you how broad this issue is.

I personally interacted with the Tech Transfer office while within the
system and after I left the system. My personal views on licensing have
changed through the years multiple times - each time depending on the
role of the license and ownership. These days I am a sole proprietor that
needs to reuse models by others and I have to deal with the licensing
bureaucracy.  This is why I am making this discussion public so modelers
are aware that their decisions now have implications later. It is not just
a paper being published and not just code on GitHub - if one wants their
work to be reused, it is important to think about future reuse.

I referenced your contributions to the white paper we are writing. You and
all members of this sub group are welcome to add their own views of the
topic in the white paper:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1voUSrSpv3AZlC1T-BLa3W4wzHQ5vEdJCVrBbwMUTDiQ/edit?usp=sharing

I ask all interested parties in this sub group to participate in
writing this document. If you want to edit, please request permission and
it will be granted. If you just want to add a paragraph, feel free to use
this mailing list and we will do my best to collect it and add to the
document.

Hopefully many of you will contribute.

               Jacob


On Sun, Jan 31, 2021 at 11:50 AM Robin Thompson <
robin.thompson1988 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Jacob,
>
> I hope all’s well. I received the response below from the relevant person
> in Oxford University about whether or not results can be used by others for
> commercial purposes. Essentially, unless the research was funded by someone
> external who might have additional conditions, everything is left to the
> discretion of the department where the research was undertaken (in this
> case, the Mathematical Institute).
>
> They also pointed me to this link:
> https://www.ox.ac.uk/students/academic/guidance/intellectual-property
>
> I hope that helps!
>
> Thanks, and best wishes,
> Robin
>
>
>
>
>
> *Does the university own the IP in the results? A couple of things to take
> into consideration here are if any third parties were involved in the
> research through funding it or collaborating on it.If the University owns
> the IP in the results it will ultimately be a decision for the Department
> as to whether they are happy to grant free access or if they are interested
> in forming a more formal relationship (if that is a possibility). So I
> would suggest that you check with the administrator or equivalent as to
> Department opinion on this.*
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Dr Robin Thompson
> Assistant Professor of Mathematical Epidemiology
> Mathematics Institute
> University of Warwick, UK
> www.robin-thompson.co.uk
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On 24 Jan 2021, at 18:05, Robin Thompson <robin.thompson1988 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> Hi Jacob,
>
> Thanks for your email. I have asked the relevant person at Oxford
> University (the institution I was at when this research was undertaken),
> and I will let you know when I hear back from them.
>
> Thanks, and best wishes,
> Robin
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Dr Robin Thompson
> Assistant Professor of Mathematical Epidemiology
> Mathematics Institute
> University of Warwick, UK
> www.robin-thompson.co.uk
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On 22 Jan 2021, at 20:37, Jacob Barhak <jacob.barhak at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi Robin, and anyone else who wants to comment,
>
> When integrating your model, you may recall I asked for permissions to use
> it and mentioned licensing issues.
>
> One of your responses was that you have to check with your institution
> regarding commercial use while you yourself were ok with me reusing your
> model and had no restrictions.
>
> I wish to explore the licensing issue in this mailing list to show what
> are approaches of different institutions and individuals to the problem.
>
> Is it possible for you to check about the policy in your institution? The
> idea is to show some examples of how institutions approach the issue. For
> example, do they delegate the decision to researchers? Do they have a
> policy about who holds the copyright? How do they treat commercial entities?
>
> I know in the US, a faculty member in most cases retains rights for their
> work, this does not always extend to staff and I am not sure
> about students. I also know that some academic institutions support tech
> transfer through patents and other endeavours.
>
> I was trying to discuss licenses here:
>
> https://forum.comses.net/t/issues-with-regard-to-call-for-transparency-of-covid-19-models/8433
>
>
> Yet this discussion was not concluded.
>
> One notable approach that Sheriff made me aware of is taken by BioModels:
> http://www.ebi.ac.uk/biomodels/faq
> They avoid the licensing issues by making all models available under CC0
>
> I am showing here some aspects of the issue and asking for you to
> check with your institution to explore all aspects of this issue so we can
> properly report those in the white paper.
>
>            Jacob
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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