RE: Sabo Bill: Measure Calls for Wider Access to FederallyFinanced Research

[David Goodman <dgoodman@princeton.edu>]

Dear Scott, 

At least one publisher insists that for work done where only some of the
authors are government employees doing the work in the course of their
duties, that they assign their part of the copyright to the non-government
author, who must then sign the copyright to the publisher.  How would you
advise one to act when confronted by such a request?

Incidentally, unless I am mistaken, the distinction you rightly emphasize
is a matter of current policy and regulations, not of law.

Dr. David Goodman
Princeton University Library
and
Palmer School of Library & Information Science, Long Island University
dgoodman@princeton.edu

----- Original Message -----
From: T Scott Plutchak <tscott@uab.edu>
Date: Thursday, July 3, 2003 0:13 am
Subject: RE: Sabo Bill: Measure Calls for Wider Access to Federally Financed Research

> Just to address the paragraph below -- work done by federal employees in
> the course of their duties is typically not subject to copyright. 
> Articleswritten by non-government employees reporting on the results of 
> federally funded research is subject to the normal copyright laws.
> 
> T. Scott Plutchak
> Editor, Journal of the Medical Library Association
> Director, Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences
> University of Alabama at Birmingham
> 
> tscott@uab.edu