The difference for public domain in terms of flexible access to the
scientific literature, is only that the original expression of the
document, of substantive portions which exhibit originality, is no
longer covered by copyright.
Other options provide this level of access by means of permissions,
the most effective being the copyleft formulation.
Seth
-----Original Message-----
From: Stevan Harnad <harnad_at_ecs.soton.ac.uk>
Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2004 15:06:29 +0000
Subject: Open Access Does Not require Republishing and Reprinting
Rights
> In an editorial entitled "Open Access and Public Domain,"
> in D-Lib Magazine December 2003 Volume 9 Number
> http://www.dlib.org/dlib/december03/12editorial.html
> Editor Bonita Wilson wrote:
>
> "'open access'... is occasionally confused with public domain,
> i.e.,
> that material easily accessible on the net is also freely
> available
> for reuse of any kind... As an example of open access materials
> that
> are not in the public domain, D-Lib Magazine content is
> available,
> without charge, to anyone with an Internet connection; materials
> contained in the magazine are subject to copyright claims and
> other
> proprietary rights... Republication or reprinting of articles
> requires permission from the... copyright [holders]... Most of
> the material in D-Lib Magazine, though provided via "open
> access,"
> is not in the public domain."
>
> I think this is entirely correct. D-Lib, not being a peer-reviewed
> journal, does not fall within the scope of the Budapest Open Access
> Initiative (BOAI), but if it *were* a peer-reviewed journal, it would
> certainly be an open-access ("gold") journal, despite the fact that
> republication and reprinting [note, this does not refer to printing
> off a hard copy for one's own use, but pass printing and
> distribution]
> require permission.
>
> There is absolutely no problem with this. The uses already permitted
> include all those that research requires: reading, downloading,
> storing,
> printing off, computer-processing and analyzing, and linking.
>
> This also happens to be what a user can normally do with everything
> else
> he finds on the web (that is not behind a toll-barrier). He may do
> all
> the above, but he may not (1) republish it (or an altered version of
> it),
> either in a paper edition or online on the web or an email list and
> (2)
> may not pass it off as his own. He may, however, insert links to its
> URL in other published materials.
>
> That's the default option on the web; it's what comes with the
> territory
> when one can access digital material with a click. More requires
> permissions.
>
> It is also the default condition for Open Access.
>
> I would only make one slight correction: Granting those further
> rights
> and permissions does not necessarily entail putting the material in
> the
> public domain. As I understand it, an author who does the latter more
> or less renounces all legal rights (including the requirement that
> his
> authorship should be acknowledged in all republications and that the
> text
> should not be corrupted). Various creative-commons licenses grant
> users
> republishing and reprinting rights without having to put the material
> in the public domain.
>
> "Re: The Urgent Need to Plan a Stable Transition"
> http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/0078.html
>
> "Re: Science 4 September on Copyright"
> http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/0092.html
>
> "Re: Legal ways around copyright for one's own giveaway texts"
> http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/0602.html
>
> "Re: Copyright: Form, Content, and Prepublication Incarnations"
> http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/1612.html
>
> "Public Access to Science Act (Sabo Bill, H.R. 2613)"
> http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/2977.htm
>
> But for the purposes of Open Access, the only thing that needs to
> be noted is that the right to republish and reprint is not a
> necessary
> condition for open access (though in some cases it may be a welcome
> one).
>
> Stevan Harnad
>
> NOTE: A complete archive of the ongoing discussion of providing open
> access to the peer-reviewed research literature online (1998-2004)
> is available at the American Scientist Open Access Forum:
> To join the Forum:
> http://amsci-forum.amsci.org/archives/American-Scientist-Open-Access-
> Forum.html
> Post discussion to:
> american-scientist-open-access-forum_at_amsci.org
> Hypermail Archive:
> http://www.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/index.html
>
> Unified Dual Open-Access-Provision Policy:
> BOAI-2 ("gold"): Publish your article in a suitable open-access
> journal whenever one exists.
> http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/boaifaq.htm#journals
> BOAI-1 ("green"): Otherwise, publish your article in a suitable
> toll-access journal and also self-archive it.
> http://www.eprints.org/self-faq/
> http://www.soros.org/openaccess/read.shtml
> http://www.eprints.org/signup/sign.php
Received on Thu Jan 15 2004 - 18:48:47 GMT