Re: PostGutenberg Copyrights and Wrongs for Give-Away Research

From: Charles Oppenheim <C.Oppenheim_at_LBORO.AC.UK>
Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2001 09:44:22 +0000

>Dear Stevan,
>While I am fully aware of the distinction between the "give-away" literature
>and the writing-for-fee literature, I can't help but wonder if the US
>Supreme Court ruling (see below) will have implications for the scholarly
>literature, as publishers have been digitizing back issues of journal
>articles that were published before the arrival of electronic publishing and
>before there were electronic rights for authors to give away. In other
>words, could authors prevent publishers from digitizing the material that
>they do not have the electronic rights to, just as some publishers have been
>preventing authors from self-archiving? And what would this really mean, if
>anything?
>
>Leslie Chan


I think Leslie's analysis is reasonable, though it must be stressed that
this ruling only applies to the USA, and there is no reason to think the
precedent set by the Supreme Court would necessarily be set in other
countries. The decision certainly strengthens the hand of authors in their
negotiations with publishers.

Professor Charles Oppenheim
Dept of Information Science
Loughborough University
Loughborough
Leics LE11 3TU

Tel 01509-223065
Fax 01509-223053
Received on Wed Jan 03 2001 - 19:17:43 GMT