But the communications professor at N.C. State University believes those class lectures are his to sell -- especially to students who probably skipped his class when he offered them in person the first time.

The profits, however, must wait. While university officials aren't sure about the rights and wrongs of selling lectures online, they've asked Schrag to stop until they can get a better handle on this new frontier in cyberspace.

Students, in the meantime, are split over whether they should have to pay for the recording of a lecture they thought was covered by tuition.

"We just need a little time to look at the issue closely and sort everything out," said Toby Parcel, dean of the NCSU College of Humanities and Social Sciences, where Schrag teaches. "That's why we asked that he stop selling the recordings for now."

Schrag, who agreed last week to stop, is a respected faculty member who has been teaching at NCSU since 1980. His general interest in selling lectures is understandable given his research in digital interactive technology.

That interest became a personal reality just before school started this year when he talked with the president of a Web site called Independent Music Online. The company offered to sell Schrag's lectures for $2.50 each, of which Schrag got to pocket $1. The site made 12 sales before the lectures were removed.

Parcel said the university is not questioning whether Schrag owns the copyright to his recordings. Higher education has long held that professors own the work they present in class, and the courts have uniformly agreed throughout the years.

What isn't clear, Parcel said, is whether selling the lectures to students presents a conflict of interest.

Both the university and Schrag realize that it doesn't matter whether he makes $1 profit or $100 for each recording. What's at stake is the principle of how far a person's intellectual property rights extend.

"If you consider the price of a concert ticket as your tuition, that ticket doesn't give you the right to the CD," Schrag said. "You don't get to pirate the work."

Students who are aware of the issue, of course, see it slightly differently -- and largely based on the cost. Their views are also influenced by the fact that professors vary wildly in how they use the Web.

Some still haven't made peace with the teaching tool while others post class notes, PowerPoint presentations, small audio clips and other materials.

"Unless there is something else added into the lectures that was not given in class, I don't understand how he can charge students for them," said Kathyrn Archer, a senior in communication media. "Other instructors give out copies of their lecture notes for free. Should they start charging us for them, too?"

But sophomore Taylor Adams has no problem with spending the $2.50 for the recordings.

"They contain material that Dr. Schrag spent years studying," Adams said, "and if they were free, it would seem like that all that time Dr. Schrag put into studying and research were worth nothing."

While the digital world of higher education is still evolving, some protocol has developed when it comes to offering lectures.

In most cases, lectures are offered on the university Web site, where students can either listen on their computers or download them for free to iPods or other MP3 players.

Kevin Smith, a lawyer with the Duke Center for Instructional Technology, said he is unaware of any case in which a professor tried to sell his lectures through a separate, independent Web site.

"It's not the kind of issue you want to figure out on the fly," said Smith, who was hired by Duke University in June specifically to stay ahead of such issues.

Duke expects its professors to offer lectures free on the university Web site, but it does not have a policy that forbids them from selling lectures independently.

Parcel said she and other administrators will consider whether the selling of lectures online poses a conflict of interest and then will decide whether the university should have a policy to guide professors.

In the meantime, students can use a decidedly low-tech solution to skirt the whole issue:

Go to class.

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