Responding generally about packet-submission tournaments, since NAQT might do things differently: 1) Who own the reproduction rights to written questions, if anyone? Particularly, to events in which each team is required to submit a packet of questions? Are questions copyrighted? The team which runs/edits a packet submission tournament. The editing team generally has some time to swap their tournament for other recent tournaments they couldn't attend. After some period of time (a year? two?) the questions tend to find their way to the public domain - either Stanford's archive or trading of others' old tournaments en masse. No copyright. Most of any given question tends to be just facts available to all - the fact that Durrell wrote The Alexandria Quartet isn't any more copyrightable than instructions on how to screw in a lightbulb. Practically, any "original" phrasing tends to be more annoying than anything else. NAQT might copyright, although I seriously doubt it's worth their while. 2) What, if any, penalties exist for plagiarism? If it messes up the question's structure by using recognizable phrasing, from a source or previously written question, the writer gets bitched at, directly or in forums like this. 3) Is there any sort of central authority that governs the validity or acceptability of questions? Tournament editors, for packet submission tournaments, and general disapproval, for centrally created tournaments. 4) Are there any legal issues with the use of copyrighted material within questions? Not really - I'm pretty sure this falls squarely within fair use. 5) Are there any trademark issues involved with the use of school names or the names of indiviuals? No one much cares about trademark usage, both because we're pretty far below anyone's radar screen and because teams tend to have some - albeit usually minimal - university backing. Matt Schneller Duke Law 04
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