Copyright transfer in a
transitional time:
A perspective on the issues
Karla Hahn, Ph.D.
Collection Management Team Leader
University of Maryland Libraries
khahn@umd.edu
Author rights transfer
“…authors’ views on copyright may be characterised
as a mixture of indifference, ignorance … and
principled resentment….”
13% of authors surveyed took a “detailed interest”
in the small print of the copyright agreement when
they published their last article.
Scholarly Communication in the Digital Environment: What do Authors Want.
Ciber survey. 18 March 2004
American Library Association
“ 1. In consideration for the publication of the Work by the
Publisher in the above-referenced Journal, Author hereby
grants and assigns to Publisher all rights, title, and interest
in and to the Work and all copyrights therein or relating
thereto….
2. The rights granted and assigned Publisher are exclusive
to the Publisher and include all rights of whatever kind or
nature, now or hereafter protected by law….
3. Publisher hereby grants to Author a royalty-free license
to publish the Work in any book of which the Author is the
author or editor….”
Author’s agreement signed 3.21.02
The Johns Hopkins University Press
“…you, as Author of the Article, hereby grant and transfer
exclusively to the Press all rights of whatever kind to the
Article….
Rights of the Author: You have the following
nonexclusive rights: (1) to use the Article in your own
teaching activities; (2) to publish the Article, or permit its
publication, as a part of any book you may write; (3) to
include the Article in your own personal or department (but
not institutional) Database or on-line site….”
Author’s agreement signed 6.9.02
Elsevier License
“ Rightsholder…grants Elsevier Science New York a
non-exclusive license…..
I retain all other rights. “
Author’s agreement signed 11.12.02
NASIG and Haworth Press
“Under the contract and agreements between Haworth Press and the North
American Serials Interest Group the following rights have been designated:
The author(s) or his/her assignee(s) owns the copyright to the work he/she
writes for the NASIG proceedings.
Haworth Press owns rights to first print publication in the NASIG proceedings
issue of Serials Librarian….
NASIG owns the rights to produce a NASIGNET version in suitable forms for
reading by members: e-mail, listserv, Gopher, WWW, and WAIS access.
…
AUTHOR REUSE OF WORK
The author(s) may not submit this work to any other journal or book publication
until after it has appeared in the NASIG proceedings issue of the Serials
Librarian.
Author(s) retain the right to reprint their work as it appears in the NASIG
proceedings issue of the Serials Librarian as part of classroom handouts,
reading room reserve, and traditional interlibrary loans. All other policy
regarding permission for reprinting are decided by the NASIG Board.”
Publisher arrangements with
scholarly societies
“…The [Society] would retain ownership of the title
of, and copyright in, the journal, with complete
control over editorial policy…. Authors would be
required to assign copyright to the [Society], or to
issue an exclusive license to publish their article in
all forms.”
From a recent proposal from a commercial publisher to publish a scholarly
society’s journal.
What are the issues?
► Access
to scholarly information
► Authors
rights to use their own intellectual
property
Sherpa
SHERPA aims to investigate issues to do with the future of scholarly
communication and publishing. In particular, it is initiating the development of
openly accessible institutional digital repositories of research output in a
number of research universities. These so-called 'e-print archives' will contain
papers by researchers from the participating institutions.
► The project will investigate the IPR, quality control and other key management
issues associated with making the research literature freely available to the
research community. It will also investigate technical questions, including
interoperability between repositories and digital preservation of e-prints.
► This site also hosts the Publishers Copyrights Listings (ROMEO) service, which
lists publisher's copyright transfer agreements.
►
SHERPA: Securing a Hybrid Environment for Research Preservation and Access.
SHERPA is funded by JISC and CURL. It is hosted by the University of
Nottingham.
► http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/index.html
►
►
Creative Commons
► http://creativecommons.org/
► “…a
single goal unites Creative Commons'
current and future projects: to build a layer
of reasonable, flexible copyright in the face
of increasingly restrictive default rules. “