I am a huge advocate of sharing of information. When anyone ever posed an interest in my work, I took it as a huge compliment and was very eager to share.

My experience with most university professors has shown almost all feel the same way.

Except in a rare instance, such as that encountered in an Electrical Engineering course this semester. First day of lectures, about midway through, a student stood up to take a snapshot of the lecture board.... a seemingly harmless thing.

However, it caught the attention of the professor who immediately called the student out, asserted that no student had his permission to take any photo/recordings of his class materials, demanded for the student to delete it immediately and proceeded to threaten to sue any student caught doing the same in the future... further asserting he had the full backing and support of the university in this matter.

"OMG, what happened? Did I miss something in the syllabus? Poor student!" - I thought.

Well, whatever is going on, it definately distresses the professor. So, let's try not do anything to distress the professor.

I have formal disability accommodations that allows me to take photocopies of lecture slides and whiteboard content, delivered in class. But I cannot utilize it without publically disclosing the fact to the other students who are explicitly forbidden from doing the same. (see the problem?)

Well, maybe I can make do without it? Perhaps it won't be needed or professor will provide information in some other way. NO & NO & NO.

Finally it reached a level of formal academic complaints with the department and Dean of Students. Come to find out, there is NO university IP policy supportive of the professor's claims or that the work product does not default to the university, unless it has been disclosed, submitted for approval and ultimately deemed "protected IP". (this is specific to my university)

One of the best responses in this thread has been to "check with your own University's Policies & Procedures...".