Re: Research: Writ, Reason, and Practice

From: Sally Morris <sally_at_morris-assocs.demon.co.uk>
Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 15:00:03 +0100

In our own study (see http://dx.doi.org/10.1087/2009308), anxieties
about copyright were mentioned by just under 3% of those who gave
their views for or against self-archiving.  Quality concerns and
version proliferation were much more commonly mentioned

 

Sally

 

 

Sally Morris

 

South House, The Street

Clapham, Worthing, West Sussex BN13 3UU, UK

 

Tel: +44(0)1903 871286

Fax: +44(0)8701 202806

Email: sally_at_morris-assocs.demon.co.uk


____________________________________________________________________________


From: American Scientist Open Access Forum
[mailto:AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM_at_LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG]
On Behalf Of Jeffery, KG (Keith)
Sent: 04 August 2009 12:00
To: AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM_at_LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG
Subject: Re: Research: Writ, Reason, and Practice

 

Stevan -

many thanks for a succinct summary.  However, while I agree it has
nothing to do strictly with green OA, the subject of copyright has
been used by some disingenuously to try to dissuade authors from
self-archiving of peer-reviewed material as you well know.  Debunking
the myth could prove useful to achieving greater than 15%
self-archiving.

best

Keith

 

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From: American Scientist Open Access Forum
[mailto:AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM_at_LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG]
On Behalf Of Stevan Harnad
Sent: 04 August 2009 11:45
To: AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM_at_LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG
Subject: Research: Writ, Reason, and Practice

To summarise:

 

Arthur is at pains to try to squeeze some reason out of (or into) an
incoherent formal writ that does not fit research writing and
practice and never has.

 

Charles is at pains to point out that researcher practice for a
half-century, though ubiquitous and uncontested, is not literally in
conformity with current formal writ,   be it coherent or incoherent,
fitting or ill-fitting, so it might be a good idea to rewrite the
writ.

 

I say let those whose priority is to reformulate incoherent and
ill-fitting formal writs go ahead and pursue their priority. But
meanwhile, let researchers continue their ubiquitous and uncontested
practice: Full speed ahead.

 

Aside: This formal side-issue has next to nothing to do with Open
Access and Green Open Access Mandates. 

http://bit.ly/S9u1H

 

Amen.

 

Stevan Harnad

 

On 4-Aug-09, at 2:53 AM, C.Oppenheim wrote:



Was ever thus, Arthur. If I make copies of a document in a country
with no
copyright laws at all, and attempt to bring them into another
country, I am
breaking the other country's copyright laws if they are infringing
under
that other country's rules. Every country with copyright law has a
clause
which says it is an offence to import copies that would be
infringing.   If
such laws didn't exist, you'd get copyright havens with little or no
copyright laws, from which people could export their infringing
copies
around the world. It's not murky at all - it is the basis of
international
copyright agreements!  For the record, it's Clause 27(3) of the UK
Act.

You may find this all very frustrating;  if you don't like it, lobby
to
change the law, but don't deny what the law says.

Charles

On Tue, 4 Aug 2009 12:30:58 +1000
Arthur Sale <ahjs_at_OZEMAIL.COM.AU> wrote:

Charles

       

       

       

      You miss the point. As the copy leaves my Australian

      hands, it is not an infringing copy. It falls under an

      exemption and is perfectly legal. From there you get into

      the murkier water of trans-border 'law'. However, it

      seems extraordinarily likely that if I send to someone in

      the UK or EU a perfectly legal copy that they have a

      perfect right to accept it in the absence of any specific

      customs or ownership legislation to the contrary, for

      example as occurs with the receipt of banned drugs mailed

      from abroad. No such UK or EU or German law exists in

      respect of the holding of copyright works as far as I

      know.

       

       

       

      Australian law simply recognises clearly what the issue

      is and how to resolve it. It is not in any way unique. I

      recognise that the law in some other countries is

      sometimes behind the times. However, you prompted me to

      look at UK Copyright Law. Here are sections 28 and 29.

       

      Chapter III Acts Permitted in relation to Copyright

      Works

       

      Introductory

       

      28 Introductory provisions

       

      (1) The provisions of this Chapter specify acts which

      may be done in relation to copyright works

      notwithstanding the subsistence of copyright; they relate

      only to the question of infringement of copyright and do

      not affect any other right or obligation restricting the

      doing of any of the specified acts.

       

      (2) Where it is provided by this Chapter that an act

      does not infringe copyright, or may be done without

      infringing copyright, and no particular description of

      copyright work is mentioned, the act in question does not

      infringe the copyright in a work of any description.

       

      (3) No inference shall be drawn from the description of

      any act which may by virtue of this Chapter be done

      without infringing copyright as to the scope of the acts

      restricted by the copyright in any description of work.

       

      (4) The provisions of this Chapter are to be construed

      independently of each other, so that the fact that an act

      does not fall within one provision does not mean that it

      is not covered by another provision.

       

      General

       

      29 Research and private study

       

      (1) Fair dealing with a literary, dramatic, musical or

      artistic work for the purposes of research or private

      study does not infringe any copyright in the work or, in

      the case of a published edition, in the typographical

      arrangement.

       

      (2) Fair dealing with the typographical arrangement of a

      published edition for the purposes mentioned in

      subsection (1) does not infringe any copyright in the

      arrangement.

       

      (3) Copying by a person other than the researcher or

      student himself is not fair dealing if-

       

      (a) in the case of a librarian, or a person acting on

      behalf of a librarian, he does anything which regulations

      under section 40 would not permit to be done under

      section 38 or 39 (articles or parts of published works:

      restriction on multiple copies of same material), or

       

      (b) in any other case, the person doing the copying

      knows or has reason to believe that it will result in

      copies of substantially the same material being provided

      to more than one person at substantially the same time

      and for substantially the same purpose.

       

      While I am not an expert in UK copyright law, it seems

      to me that:

       

      ·         Clauses 28(1) and (2) are the exemption

      clauses.

       

      ·         Research copying is not restricted to the

      person doing the copying. Indeed the wording makes a

      distinction between `research' and `private study'

      (Clause 29(1)). It does not even say `private research'.

      All the `private study' does actually is to prohibit

      copying for classes.

       

      ·         Clause 29(3) is slightly ambiguous as it is

      not completely clear who the `researcher' is: producer or

      consumer. However, assuming consumer - the most

      restrictive case and the most probable interpretation -

      the law simply requires the producing researcher to be

      convinced that he is doing copying for a single consumer

      researcher and that it will not be disseminated further.

      The clause actually explicitly assumes third parties

      (librarians) might be involved.

       

      UK Law does not seem to be as prehistoric as you make

      out. I think there are old misunderstandings being

      rehearsed here. Fair dealing (in particular copying to

      facilitate research) was and remains legal as well as

      common practice, especially in the homeland of scientific

      journal.

       

       

       

      Arthur

       

       

       

       

       

      -----Original Message-----

      From: American Scientist Open Access Forum

      [mailto:AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM_at_LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG]

      On Behalf Of C.Oppenheim

      Sent: Monday, 3 August 2009 5:21 PM

      To:

      AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM_at_LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG

      Subject: Re: [AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM]

      "Authors Re-using Their Own Work"

       

       

       

      I now understand why Arthur and I disagree.  He is

      referring to Australian

       

      Copyright Law, and I am referring to UK law.

       

       

       

      I am happy to accept that Arthur's approach is accurate

      in Australian law.

       

      unfortunately in UK, and most of EU law, it isn't.  In

      these countries,

       

      there is a clear distinction between the right of

      reproduction and the

       

      communication right and the law treats them differently.

      Thus, in the UK,

       

      it is legal for anyone to copy a work for themselves

      under fair dealing, but

       

      fair dealing does not apply to the communication right

      (i.e., providing

       

      things electronically to third parties).

       

       

       

      Thus, unfortunately, whilst Arthur may well be able to

      do what he suggests

       

      within Australia (and no doubt some other countries as

      well), what he cannot

       

      do is send such materials to the EU as the recipient

      would be breaking the

       

      law by importing an infringing copy.  Arthur and others

      may well of course

       

      argue that this is such a trivial illegality that the

      risk can gbe taken,

       

      and I'd agree.  But there's a world of difference

      between saying "it's

       

      illegal, but the risk is trivial" and saying "it's

      absolutely legal".

       

       

       

      I am sure readers of the forum are by now totally bored

      by this topic so I

       

      don't intend to say anything more on it, other to remind

      them that there are

       

      numerous solutions to the problem anyway: to send a

      requestor an earlier

       

      version of the work before copyright was assigned;  to

      assign copyright but

       

      make sure the publisher gives permission for you to send

      stuff

       

      electronically to requestors;  or not to assign

      copyright at all to the

       

      publisher.

       

       

       

      Charles

       

       

       

      On Sun, 2 Aug 2009 11:15:16 +1000

       

      Arthur Sale <ahjs_at_OZEMAIL.COM.AU> wrote:

       

            Charles

       

             

       

            The Australian Act makes no mention of who
            does the

       

            reproduction. Whether I make a
            reproduction/copy (say

       

            electronic by email, or photocopy my
            manuscript or the

       

            journal, or some other form of copy) of my
            article to

       

            give to my PhD student, or he/she does it
            personally from

       

            a CD I lend or a journal issue they borrow,
            makes no

       

            difference. I can even ask an administrative
            assistant to

       

            make the copy for me and deliver it. What
            matters is that

       

            the copy is for the purpose of research or
            study. Exactly

       

            the same applies to a remote researcher who
            asks me for a

       

            copy of my article.

       

             

       

            I left out sections 1A and 1B of Section 40
            but they

       

            (amongst other things) even make provision
            for

       

            reproductions of journal articles to be
            provided to

       

            [multiple] off-campus students engaged in a
            course of

       

            study.

       

             

       

            The Australian Act simply recognises that
            research

       

            thrives on dissemination. I might add that it
            is equally

       

            sensible in other areas, such as photography
            of copyright

       

            works located permanently or temporarily in
            public

       

            places.

       

             

       

            But Stevan is right. The law is not the
            issue. I merely

       

            pointed out that the Australian Act is more
            sensible than

       

            most in that it legitimises what is common
            practice, so

       

            common indeed as to be hardly worth remarking
            on except

       

            when people query it. The facts are that
            researchers have

       

            practised copying of research articles and
            sending copies

       

            to fellow researchers for a long time, and
            they continue

       

            to do so. My memory of this goes back to when
            I started

       

            work as an academic in 1961, 48 years ago. My
            publishers

       

            then even asked me how many reprints I wanted
            - not

       

            necessary these days.

       

             

       

            Arthur Sale

       

            University of Tasmania

       

             

       

            -----Original Message-----

       

            From: American Scientist Open Access Forum

       

            [mailto:AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM_at_LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG]

       

            On Behalf Of C.Oppenheim

       

            Sent: Saturday, 1 August 2009 10:31 PM

       

            To:

       

            AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM_at_LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG

       

            Subject: Re:
            [AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM]

       

            "Authors Re-using Their Own Work"

       

             

       

            The Austrlain Act does indeed permit fair
            dealing for

       

            one's own research or

       

            private study;  but it doesn't permit copying
            for

       

            distribution to third

       

            parties.

       

             

       

            I am slightly alarmed that there is this

       

            misunderstanding about copyright

       

            law.  Fair dealing for research or private
            study is

       

            when you make a copy

       

            for one's own research or private study.
             Thus, in law,

       

            if Dr Jones asks Dr

       

            Smith for an electronic  copy of Dr Smith's
            article, and

       

            Dr Smith gave away

       

            the copyright to Megacorp Publishers, then Dr
            Smith

       

            should strictly not

       

            supply that copy (unless the publisher has
            granted

       

            permission for do such

       

            things)  b3ecause the copy isn't then for Dr
            Smith's own

       

            research or private

       

            study, but should advise Dr Jones to make his
            own fair

       

            dealing copy.

       

 

 

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