| Record #4 |
State: TX |
City: San Antonio |
District: One of the San Antonio area districts |
Action: Cease and desist letter |
| Year: 2002 |
Mat'l: Computer software |
Settled?: Yes, out of court |
Infringer: Other |
Facts: District received certified letter from Business
Software Alliance (BSA) saying they had "...received information that
xxx District may have installed or in use on its computers, more copies
of software products published by the BSA's member companies than it has
authorization or licenses to support.", and "...BSA takes the position
that any continued infringement after notice constitutes willful
infringement and, upon learning of such infringement following the date
of this letter [June 14, 2002], reserves the rights of our members to
seek all legal remedies without further notice." |
| Damages: |
Who reported: Disgruntled teacher |
District Action: Email went to all employees that
the seriousness of adherence to copyright law is of utmost importance
and will be expected. A software audit is planned. A copyright workshop
for all librarians and Campus Instructional Technologists had already
been planned before the letter, with invitations also going to campus
and district administrators. |
Court Action: None |
Resolution: The district asked its lawyer to write a letter
saying that action would be taken to educate employees and that a
software audit would occur. |
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| Record #5 |
State: CA |
City: Los Angeles |
District: Los Angeles Unified School District |
Action: Lawsuit |
| Year: 1998 |
Mat'l: Computer software |
Settled?: Yes, out of court |
Infringer: Staff/paraprofessional |
Facts: A complaint from someone at one of the districts
school buildings to the Business Software Alliance. Nearly 1,400
unauthorized copies of Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Word were found.
Total retail value more than $500,000. |
| Damages: Nearly $5, 300,000 |
Who reported: Disgruntled teacher |
District Action: Paid fine of $300,000 and
replaced licensed versions of software throughout the district at a cost
of nearly $5 million and wrote a new/updated software copyright policy
in school board policy. |
Court Action: Settled out of court |
Resolution: Settled out of court for $300,000 plus the cost
of replacing illegal copies district wide at a cost of nearly $5
million. |
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| Record #7 |
State: IL |
City: Carpentersville |
District: Community Unit School District 300 |
Action: Other |
| Year: 2001 |
Mat'l: Computer software |
Settled?: Yes, out of court |
Infringer: Administrator |
Facts: Illegal copies of Adobe Acrobat software was loaded
onto several machines used by administrators at one school. |
| Damages: $50,000 |
Who reported: Other |
District Action: An updated acceptable use
policy. Building-level personnel may not purchase or install software.
All administrators and teachers will be trained on copyright and
district policy. One district level person will document all software
licenses. |
Court Action: Settled out of court |
Resolution: An updated acceptable use policy. Building-level
personnel may not purchase or install software. All administrators and
teachers will be trained on copyright and district policy. One district
level person will document all software licenses.
Source: eSchool News, 9/25/2001 |
| |
| Record #8 |
State: TX |
City: Dallas area |
District: Dallas area district |
Action: Lawsuit |
| Year: 2004 |
Mat'l: Workbooks |
Settled?: Yes, out of court |
Infringer: Teacher |
Facts: As I understand it, the department chair in the
English department at [a Dallas suburban high school] was given a TAKS
workbook from the district English Coordinator. The intent of the
coordinator was to provide department chairs with a resource to use as a
guide for preparing TAKS questions and exercises for students.
Apparently the department chair did not understand this. She
subsequently copied the entire workbook for each teacher in her
department. Several of those teachers then copied worksheet pages for
their students to be used in class. Apparently, the publisher discovered
this and filed suit. |
| Damages: yes, amount unknown |
Who reported: Copyright owner |
District Action: The district has appointed the
library coordinator to be the copyright educator. We now have very
specific district policies regarding copyright on the district website.
A copyright PowerPoint is also posted and every employee is required to
view it. The librarians in every school are being further educated in
regard to copyright laws and are responsible for providing information
to their individual campuses. |
Court Action: Settled out of court |
Resolution: The district admitted to the violation, settled
with the company out of court, and paid a large fine (I don't know the
specific amount). |
| |
| Record #9 |
State: TX |
City: Fort Worth |
District: Ft. Worth ISD |
Action: Cease and desist letter |
| Year: 2004 |
Mat'l: Print material |
Settled?: No, pending |
Infringer: Administrator |
Facts: 300 copies of multiple pages from a book were handed
out at a district-wide meeting with no source citation or permission
from the authors to make copies of their book. The administrator who
made the copies was told twice that this would be an infringement and
chose to make the copies anyway. A person who attended the meeting was
able to locate the source and publisher and mailed a copy of the
material to the publisher. Subsequently, the administrator and the
superintendent both received cease and desist letters. |
| Damages: $15,000 (est.) |
Who reported: Disgruntled teacher |
District Action: More training is taking place in
the district, but as of April, 2007 no changes or additions have been
made to district policies. I expect that there will be many more
instances of this type of thing, as the district has yet to be very
concerned about the types of infringements the teachers and
administrators commit on a daily basis. |
Court Action: None |
Resolution: It is my understanding that the district was
asked to pay for 300 copies of the book. |
| |
| Record #11 |
State: TX |
City: Houston |
District: confidential |
Action: Cease and desist letter |
| Year: 2013 (approx) |
Mat'l: Print |
Settled?: Yes |
Infringer: multiple |
Facts: Teachers had posted workbook pages on open web pages, along with answers. The workbooks were no longer in adoption in that district, but were still used by districts around the country. Students in those other districts found the answers online; the teachers discovered the students had found the answers, and complained to the publishing company. |
| Damages: settled |
Who reported: teachers in districts using the textbook series reported the web posting to |
District Action: Immediately removed the improperly posted materials |
Court Action: None |
Resolution: The district settled with the publishing company. |
| |
| Record #12 |
State: TX |
City: Varies |
District:Varies |
Action: Lawsuit |
| Year: 2017 (approx) |
Mat'l: Print |
Settled?: No |
Infringer: multiple |
Facts: Libraries (for the most part) used a variety of reading incentives using the word "millionaire." Some were Millionaire Reader, some were based on read a million words (using the word counts found in Accelerated Reader and other reading testing programs). Publisher of a similar reading program sued multiple school districts saying their home grown activities and materials were copyright or trademark infringements, or both. |
| Damages: $0 |
Who reported: unknown |
District Action: Immediately removed the materials |
Court Action: Request for injunction and damages |
Resolution: Houston ISD prevailed on the trademark claim. Other suits still in process. |
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| Record #13 |
State: TX |
City: Houston |
District:Houston ISD |
Action: Lawsuit |
| Year: 2019 |
Mat'l: Print |
Settled?: No |
Infringer: multiple teachers and administrators |
Facts: Multiple employees made copies of study guides for various state assessments. Some were digitzed and made available on the open web. Discovercy showed that when a teacher informed her principal that the work he was having her duplicate was protected by copyright, the principal brushed off the warning, and the teacher then agreed to make the copies. |
| Damages: $9,400,000 |
Who reported: Company found documents online |
District Action: Immediately removed the materials |
Court Action: Jury trial |
Resolution: Houston ISD was found to have infringed multiple documents, and the jury found that the infringement was willful, increasing the damages awarded. |
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