RE: BioMed Central Authors to retain copyright

["T. Scott Plutchak" <TSCOTT@lister2.lhl.uab.edu>]

You can see the BioMed Central (BMC) copyright agreement at
http://www.biomedcentral.com/copyright.asp

While the author retains the copyright, they must "grant to BMC a
non-exclusive license to publish the article in BMC or any third party
repositories such as PubMed Central. This is a worldwide, irrevocable,
royalty-free license to publish the article on-line, in print and in any
other format in which it is now or in the future capable of existence and
in any language."

Thus, BMC will make the article freely available to all (through PubMed
Central, etc.) while the author retains copyright and the ability to
republish the article elsewhere.
  
T. Scott Plutchak Director, 
Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences
Associate Director, Academic Programs Information Technology University of
Alabama at Birmingham

tscott@uab.edu
http://www.uab.edu/lister

-----Original Message-----
From: Trisha L. Davis [mailto:davis.115@osu.edu]
Sent: Thursday, April 13, 2000 9:06 PM
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: Re: BioMed Central Authors to retain copyright


Rick -

Your comments are so true.  Why don't folks understand the basics of
copyright law?  Would they want their research free to all without
barriers?

What BioMed can do is to obtain copyright permission for the research "as
published" by them (BioMed) while the author retains all rights to the
intellectual property.  Then BioMed can transfer those rights to whomever
they wish, for whatever purposes and at whatever cost, or free.  Maybe
this is what they're trying to say?

**************************************************************************
Trisha L. Davis, Associate Professor
Head, Serials & Electronic Resources Dept
The Ohio State University Libraries             Phone: (614) 292-6314
1848 Neil Avenue Mall  040N                     Fax:   (614) 292-2015
Columbus, OH 43210-1286                 Email:  davis.115@osu.edu
**************************************************************************

At 06:32 PM 4/12/00 -0400, you wrote:
><snip>
> > "BioMed Central promises to offer all primary research
> > without financial and copyright barriers," says Professor
> > Marc W Kirschner, Head of the Department of Cell Biology at
> > Harvard Medical School.
>
><snip>
> > "We will make the publishing of original research quicker,
> > easier and free to all," says Vitek Tracz, Chairman of
> > BioMed Central.
>
>Ummmm... well, let's not exaggerate here.  If the copyright remains with
>the authors, it's not exactly accurate to say that there are "no copyright
>barriers" involved or that the authors' research will now be "free to
>all."  In fact, unless the authors formally put their works in the public
>domain, the full force of copyright law will still apply -- it's just that
>it will do so on behalf of the authors, rather than the publisher.  This
>is probably a good thing in that it keeps copyright in the hands of those
>who are presumably driven more by professional (rather than economic)
>interests, but it does not mean that their work has somehow become "free
>to all"; users face the same restrictions under the law no matter who owns
>the copyright.
>
>
>--------
>Rick Anderson
>Head Acquisitions Librarian
>Jackson Library
>UNC Greensboro
>(336) 334-5281
>rick_anderson@uncg.edu