Comment Copyright (Score 1) 211
What country are you in? Copyright law is going to be different in different places, at least a bit.
What university are you at? Some universities require students' to turn over copyright in their work (although many don't). Some universities also have requirements or restrictions on how you may license the work- the most common one I've seen recently is requiring students to allow the library to provide an electronic version.
Assuming US law, part of your statement is redundant; someone else can't legally claim copyright in your work, either published excerpts or its entirety.
Your pirate/steal bit is a bit confusing, even without the normal misuse of the terms to describe infringement.
Creative Commons does sound like your best bet- check it out. ^^