You as author can only transfer any rights you actually have. If the university
as employer retains any rights to works which you produce in the course of your
employment, which it is entitled to do, then you can only transfer the rights
the university has agreed to allow you to retain. My proposal is that the
employment contract should specify that the university retains the right to
authorise non-commercial publication, but allows the author(s) to negotiate
commercial publication rights. Any licence or assignment signed by the author
could only validly transfer rights which the author actually owns, so the
author could only grant non-exclusive rights to a publisher. The only problem I
foresee is if the publisher's contract has a clause requiring the author to
warrant ownership of all the rights. This could be dealt with fairly easily by
a standard form clause that all staff would be advised to send to publishers,
pointing out that the university has reserved the right to authorise free
publication via the internet or eprints archive, so rights acquired by the
publisher are subject to this.
cheers
sol
********************************
Prof. Sol Picciotto
Head,
Lancaster University Law School
Lancaster University
LANCASTER LA1 4YN,
U.K.
direct phone (44)(0)1524-592464
fax (44)(0)1524-525212
s.picciotto_at_lancaster.ac.uk
**********************************
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Fytton Rowland [SMTP:J.F.Rowland_at_LBORO.AC.UK]
> Sent: Wednesday, January 08, 2003 3:53 PM
> To: AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM_at_LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG
> Subject: Re: Draft Policy for Self-Archiving University Research Output
>
> Um - before you can have a "postprint" you must have published the paper
> somewhere. In many (most?) cases you will have transferred the copyright to
> the journal. So how can the University then assert its ownership of a
> copyright that you, the individual academic, have already given away in the
> belief that it was yours to give?
>
> Fytton Rowland.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Picciotto, Sol" <s.picciotto_at_LANCASTER.AC.UK>
> To: <AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM_at_LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 08, 2003 1:57 PM
> Subject: Re: Draft Policy for Self-Archiving University Research Output
>
>
> > It seems that copyright ownership could be an important obstacle to
> archiving
> > postprints. I have proposed at Lancaster that academic staff employment
> > contracts be modified to make it clear that the university asserts its
> rights
> > as employer to copyright in staff research publications, but only to the
> extent
> > of reserving the right to authorise non-commercial publication on the
> internet,
> > e.g. in an eprints archive. This would circumvent a possible restriction
> > resulting from any copyright assignment the author signs. The idea has
> been met
> > favourably here, both by the AUT (professional association) and
> management, but
> > both have referred it for discussion at national level.
> >
> > I think the university should be willing to forego any claim to income
> from
> > research publications, but should retain the right to authorise
> non-commercial
> > publication. The decision on when to publish, which version, etc, should
> be
> > left to the author(s), within a policy such as that suggested here for
> > Southampton, which would greatly facilitate acceptance of eprints
> archiving as
> > a standard practice.
> >
> > cheers
> >
> > Sol
> > ********************************
> >
> > Prof. Sol Picciotto
> > Head,
> > Lancaster University Law School
> > Lancaster University
> > LANCASTER LA1 4YN,
> > U.K.
> > direct phone (44)(0)1524-592464
> > fax (44)(0)1524-525212
> > s.picciotto_at_lancaster.ac.uk
> >
> > **********************************
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Stevan Harnad [SMTP:harnad_at_ecs.soton.ac.uk]
> > > Sent: Wednesday, January 08, 2003 12:49 PM
> > > To: AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM_at_LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG
> > > Subject: Draft Policy for Self-Archiving University Research
> Output
> > >
> > > Comments are invited on the following draft for a university policy on
> > > the self-archiving of research output:
> > >
> > > http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~lac/archpol.html
> > >
> > > It is being formulated both for use at Southampton
> > > University, and as a possible model for wider adoption,
> > > particularly in connection with a recommended restructuring
> > > http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/2373.html
> > > of UK's Research Assessment Exercise (RAE)
> > > http://www.rareview.ac.uk/
> > > and its emulation in other countries
> > > http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/2356.html
> > >
> > > Stevan Harnad
> >
> >
Received on Wed Jan 08 2003 - 16:55:34 GMT