Authors and publishers' rights

[Fred Friend <ucylfjf@ucl.ac.uk>]

I am sorry that Chris Zielinski is so fierce in his attack in response to
Anthony Watkinson's contribution. Just to deal with the specific UK
situation first, the NESLI Steering Group have not refused participation
to authors, and if authors do have rights which are to be included in the
NESLI Licence, those rights will be acknowledged in the agreements
regarding particular publications which will constitute the heart of the
NESLI service. What we have to recognise, however, is that for the vast
majority of journal articles authors have assigned rights to the
publishers, so the reality is the primary NESLI negotiations have had to
be with publishers. It would be good to be able to offer through NESLI a
journal title where all the rights were held by authors, but in practice
it has to be a matter of the NESLI Managing Agent negotiating with
publishers, who should acknowledge when they do not have the legal
authority to grant rights specified in the NESLI Licence. It is at that
stage that the role of a body like the Authors' Licensing and Collecting
Society becomes important, ensuring that authors who have not assigned
rights to publishers are protected. 

Leaving the UK situation - as this is an international list - I hope that
there can be rational discussion of the balance in rights between authors
and publishers. I have no doubt that some publishers have exploited the
assignment of rights by authors, but I suspect that the majority have not. 
And most authors have assigned rights willingly. As Chris Zielinski's
message came through I was signing a copyright agreement for a journal
article I have written, and although I amended it slightly, fundamentally
I could see that it made sense for me to assign my rights as part of the
whole economics of scholarly publication as it exists now. On the other
hand scholarly communication is changing and it may be that in the new
relationships emerging between authors, publishers and users, authors will
not assign all rights in the way they have done in the past. What Anthony
Watkinson emphasised was the process whereby a reasonable level of
consensus has been reached in the UK on licensing terms. That has not come
through total agreement but through a better understanding of the each
other's situation. Publishers have valid needs which have to be
acknowledged. So do librarians. I do hope that a similar process can
enable a new relationship between authors and publishers to develop. 

Fred Friend             
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Frederick J.Friend, 
Director Scholarly Communication,
c/o Graduate School,
North Cloisters,
University College London,
Gower Street,
London WC1E 6BT,
England.
Telephone +44 171 380 7090
Mobile phone   0385 921 774    
Fax           +44 171 380 7043
E-mail       ucylfjf@ucl.ac.uk   or    f.friend@ucl.ac.uk
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