Re: Copyright: Form, Content, and Prepublication Incarnations
On October 23 and 25, 2001, I wrote my posts in response to the posts
that Stevan Harnad forwarded to CNI-COPYRIGHT, another discussion list.
But, because my posts appeared only on CNI-COPYRIGHT, they did not
go to this forum. My primary motivation is to have my posts appear
in the archive. My secondary motivation is to make the people in
this forum aware that there were few posts on CNI-COPYRIGHT that
did not go to this forum.
Below are my three posts that are separated by a line of 70 asterisks.
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Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2001 18:05:10 -0400 (EDT)
From: Joseph Pietro Riolo <riolo_at_voicenet.com>
To: Multiple recipients of list <cni-copyright_at_cni.org>
Subject: Re: Copyright: Form, Content, and Prepublication Incarnations
On Mon, 22 Oct 2001, Stevan Harnad <harnad_at_cogprints.soton.ac.uk> wrote:
>
> The question, as put, is, Does the copyright of a text pertain to just
> the form or the content? ...
Copyright covers only the expressions that have at least a bit of
creativity. If the form is purely utilitarian, it is uncopyrightable.
The content can be copyrighted if the fixed expressions in it are
copyrightable.
> (6) If and when it is accepted for publication, THAT final draft,
> including the value added by the refereeing process (and perhaps also
> the editing, markup, formatting), is the one on which the author is
> asked to transfer copyright to the publisher.
I find that hard to believe. If a final draft is substantially
similar to the first draft, I doubt that the U.S. Copyright law
will provide two separate copyrights, one for the first draft and
one for the final draft. Even if there are differences between the
first and final drafts, the author can claim the second copyright
only on the expressions in the final draft that are not found in
the first draft. But, in no way he can claim one copyright on the
entirety of the first draft and again claim a second copyright on the
entirety of the second draft.
But, I notice that you are in the United Kingdom and I have no idea
how the copyright law operates in your country in respect to first
and final drafts.
> (8) If (7) is refused, the author merely self-archives and links a
> corrigenda file to the already self-archived preprint, indicating
> publicly what changes need to made in the already publicly archived
> preprint in order to make it equivalent to the final draft.
Instead of going through many intricate steps, why not just dedicate
an article to the public domain in one step and be done with it?
Joseph Pietro Riolo
<riolo_at_voicenet.com>
Number of days left until 1-1-2019 when all knowledge of 1923
in the land of the U.S.A. will be freed from their copyright
owners' prisons: 6,278
Public domain notice: I put all of my expressions in this
post in the public domain.
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Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2001 09:21:53 -0400 (EDT)
From: Joseph Pietro Riolo <riolo_at_voicenet.com>
To: Multiple recipients of list <cni-copyright_at_cni.org>
Subject: Re: Copyright: Form, Content, and Prepublication Incarnations
On Wed, 24 Oct 2001, Stevan Harnad <harnad_at_cogprints.soton.ac.uk> wrote:
>
> A little reflection will remind us that copyright law was never
> conceived or intended for this anomalous, nonrepresentative minority
> consisting of give-away texts. It was conceived and intended for the
> the majority, non-give-away texts, those for which their authors (in
> collaboration with their publishers) wish to make MONEY (through
> royalties, fees or salary) in exchange for the product:
Copyright is not about money exclusively. It is about control
(that is why copyright is called as a limited monopoly) and money
is a consequence of the control. While the authors of the
give-away texts may have no interest in money, they still retain
control over the texts. This is what copyright law is intended
for. History shows that copyright was an offspring of censorship
which also concerns about the control.
Moreover, because an author of a give-away text still retains
control over it, he can change his mind and change it to a
non-give-away text.
Joseph Pietro Riolo
<riolo_at_voicenet.com>
Number of days left until 1-1-2019 when all knowledge of 1923
in the land of the U.S.A. will be freed from their copyright
owners' prisons: 6,276
Public domain notice: I put all of my expressions in this
post in the public domain.
**********************************************************************
Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2001 09:23:46 -0400 (EDT)
From: Joseph Pietro Riolo <riolo_at_voicenet.com>
To: Multiple recipients of list <cni-copyright_at_cni.org>
Subject: Re: Copyright: Form, Content, and Prepublication Incarnations
On Wed, 24 Oct 2001, Stevan Harnad <harnad_at_cogprints.soton.ac.uk> wrote:
>
> A URL can perhaps be removed from its original site if the author
> acquiesces, and if that site is still under the control of the
> self-archiving author. But when it comes to the countless mirrors,
> caches, back-up archives and local/global downloads netwide, and their
> own respective continuing lifelines and sequelae -- i.e., the "further
> circulation" -- forget it!
While it is almost impossible to eliminate all unauthorized copies
of copyrighted works, the copyright holders have plenty of time -
at least 70 years - to seek, find, and destroy the unauthorized
copies. When they find the unauthorized copies, the copyright law
is on their side. Also, the format of storage where the archives
are kept in may be obsoleted and unless the owners of the storage
put in a lot of effort to copy the storage to a new format,
the unauthorized copies disappear naturally.
Joseph Pietro Riolo
<riolo_at_voicenet.com>
Number of days left until 1-1-2019 when all knowledge of 1923
in the land of the U.S.A. will be freed from their copyright
owners' prisons: 6,276
Public domain notice: I put all of my expressions in this
post in the public domain.
**********************************************************************
Joseph Pietro Riolo
<riolo_at_voicenet.com>
Public domain notice: I put all of my expressions in this
post in the public domain.
Received on Thu Nov 08 2001 - 02:47:45 GMT
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