If the university claims ownership but licenses rights back to the academic – do the rights continue when they leave the university?

Finally, if the academic is the designated rightsholder and as such has asserted their moral rights in, say, a videoed performance, what happens when the university wants to make subsequent changes to it?

Academic employees rarely remain at one institution for the whole of their careers. Questions are therefore raised as to what happens to the teaching materials when the author is no longer at the university.

If the university claims ownership or at least refuses to permit an academic to take a copy with them, this might constitute a Restraint of Trade, invoking legislation that protects an individual’s rights to continue practising their trade when they move from one employer to another (McCann 2014).