I recall some problems of the same sort that happened a few years ago,
although not the details, in Swansea. I'm rather surprised that nobody
seems to remember that there has in the past been some discussion of
institutions trying to take copyright over research produced in the
course of employment, and strike action has been mooted before. It
reached THES, but this is all quite a while ago now, so I forget the
details. Let's be clear, I don't expect a repeat of this issue, though
Fred's testimony affirms that there are still strong feelings here -
even though there's clearly no money in it.
What I meant was this: we and probably many repositories ask for the
researcher to indemnify the university against loss sustained through
negligence, while not agreeing necessarily to defend them if someone
breaches their own copyright. See
http://cadair.aber.ac.uk/dspace/cadair/licence.jsp for our licence,
which I'm afraid is unlikely to be changed. At the same time it is
increasingly a condition of research grants to deposit, and an
expectation of their academic work to seek grants - all this would be
affirmed more directly if we achieved a mandate. This would be a change
to a condition of employment that could be seen to put academics at
personal risk. Union action is not therefore a fanciful notion.
Thanks for any advice on this,
Talat
Received on Mon Dec 03 2007 - 10:45:32 GMT