Go ahead, purchase the curriculum. But make sure to read the fine print before you do so! The IBO owns your lesson plans, your students' work, their exams, art projects, even their personal essays. What ever happened to FERPA? Click here for specific references to IB documents which chronicle these issues.
IB Vade Mecum
Research on intellectual property law reveals Switzerland to be #1 when it comes to having the strictest and most impenetrable laws on the books. It is therefore incumbent upon parents of IB students to understand exactly what IBO is permitted to do with their child's work after it has been completed and submitted to IBO for assessment:
Article 3.2 -Candidates retain copyright on all materials submitted to the IBO on their behalf for assessment purposes, BUT by submitting those materials they thereby grant the IBO a non-exclusive, charge-free, worldwide license, for the duration of the statutory copyright protection, to reproduce the materials in any medium for assessment, educational, training and/or promotional purposes in relation to the IBO's activities or those related activities of which it approves. Where the IBO uses these materials for purposes other than assessment, it may modify, translate or otherwise change them to meet particular needs, and in order to protect the identity of the candidate and of the school, and will anonymize them before publication in print or in electronic form.
So what exactly does that mean? It should be noted that the verbiage of this particular paragraph was substantially altered from previous years when IBO declared that all student work submitted to IBO for assessment became the "absolute property" of the IBO. As often occurs with IBO, as soon as something is made public which may cause concern, IBO quickly adjusts its policies and language to obfuscate the issue.
Let's say your child writes some brilliant extended essay on a topic of global significance. IBO likes the sound of your child's essay, it has that true globalist ring to it. IBO can take your child's essay, remove their name from it, MODIFY it, and publish it on the Internet or hard copy and distribute it around the world for IBO's "promotional purposes" or "particular needs". IBO is effectively saying that you, the parent, by enrolling your child in the IB program, grant IBO the right to use your child's work for whatever marketing strategy it happens to be using.