Dear Yale College Student,

Over the past few days, many members of the Yale community have expressed their concern about the activities of an Internet company called Versity.com, which purchases lecture notes from students for posting on its website. Versity.com, which receives revenues from advertisers, has not sought permission either from the instructors or from the University for the use of these materials.

There is a consensus that Versity.com's actions are a deeply troubling commercial intrusion into our classrooms, an improper exploitation of the intellectual property of the instructors, and in many instances a misrepresentation of courses. Yale's Vice President and General Counsel has therefore written to Versity.com with a demand that it cease posting notes from Yale courses on its website and remove any notes that had previously been posted.

I also want to take this opportunity to remind you that the Undergraduate Regulations prohibit any student from entering into an unauthorized commercial arrangement such as the one that Versity.com makes with those who furnish it with notes taken at Yale lectures:

"No undergraduate may undertake to represent any commercial interest or to operate any business on the campus without securing prior permission from the dean of student affairs." (Chapter IX, Section J, p. 57 in the 1999-2000 edition).

The faculty of Yale College recognizes that the Internet can provide extraordinarily positive new opportunities for teaching and learning. Versity.com, however, is making use of this technology in ways that are not only wrongful, but also often misleading and academically unsound. The University maintains a specially designed web site, , for our faculty to post course materials in such a way as to ensure the accuracy of those materials and to afford access, free of commercial exploitation, to all those to whom the faculty member wishes to extend such access. And of course students may privately share lecture notes with one another, so long as such exchange is freely made and does not lead to the misrepresentation of another's work as one's own.

I hope your classes are going well this term and send you best wishes for the upcoming Spring Recess.

Richard H. Brodhead
Dean of Yale College

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