Since the beginning of formal education, students have exchanged information learned in class in order to get a firmer grasp on what they’ve been taught.

College students are expected to take notes in their classes, and many compare what they’ve extracted from lectures to make sure they haven’t missed any potential test material.

In recent years, businesses selling notes both locally and on the Internet have been rising in popularity.

Since professors have learned there are people out there profiting from their preaching, they have become much more concerned about the copyright laws applicable to their intellectual property.

Iowa State has a little-known policy to protect the aural spoutings of those professors whose notes are being sold. Students caught selling their notes can be expelled if they don’t first clear it with their professors.

Some professors are against note sellers because they fear students will skip class more if they can simply go online or down the street to get the notes later.

They also say copyright laws protect their lectures because the information is their original intellectual material.

While students may find notes services convenient, there is no reason to believe they promote class skipping. The information given in lecture is only part of the importance of attending class. If students don’t participate in the in-class discussion and interaction or do their homework, they won’t perform well on tests or come out with a good grade.

As far as intellectual property goes, the majority of the material professors lecture on is regurgitated knowledge from textbooks they’ve read or lectures from their own college professors.

If anyone is considering suing note-taking services for copyright infringement, it should be the publisher of the books professors are using to teach their classes.

Certainly there are some genuine problems with purchasing notes taken by another student.

It seems unfair for students to have to pay for class notes they could get from a peer or from the professors themselves.

There also is the risk of purchasing notes from a student who didn’t comprehend the lecture and therefore sold inaccurate information.

The best solution for all parties is for professors to put their own notes online or sell them as coursepackets for students to purchase.

No copyright infringement, no middle man and no mistakes.

If professors could understand that students find pre-printed notes an invaluable resource, they could avoid all legal issues by providing them on their own initiative.