RE: Scholarly Publishing Groups Issue White Paper on Academic Use of Journal Articles

["Armbruster, Chris" <Chris.Armbruster@EUI.eu>]

"Exclusive rights are critical to administering the scientific 
record and ensuring viable business models for journals." 
http://www.pspcentral.org/ (scroll down)

With the White Paper "Author and Publishing Rights for Academic 
Use: An Appropriate Balance", publishers are preparing legal and 
policy moves to limit the sharing of published research articles 
and data to the author"s institution, seemingly seeking to end 
archiving and distribution of any post-print (by author, library 
or institutional repository). Publishers are speaking of the need 
to limit sharing to "internal institutional non-commercial 
research and education purposes."

By contrast, in a recent paper I argue that nonexclusive 
licensing is the way forward in the dissemination and 
certification of research articles and data. The paper was 
announced
Winner: Writing Competition Yale Law Information Society Project 
"Access to Knowledge" (2007) and International Journal of 
Communications Law and Policy (IJCLP)
http://research.yale.edu/isp/eventsa2k2.html

"Cyberscience and the Knowledge-based Economy, Open Access and 
Trade Publishing: From Contradiction to Compatibility with 
Nonexclusive Copyright Licensing"

No change in copyright law is required. Universities, libraries, 
research funders and scholars may implement all necessary 
regulation for the emergence of a competitive market that will 
ensure open access, maximise global inclusion and enhance impact. 
All that is required are copyright policies that regulate for 
nonexclusive licensing with some rights reserved (Attribution and 
No Derivative Works).

The paper provides a full exposition of the argument (see 
abstract below).

Abstract
Open source, open content and open access are set to 
fundamentally alter the conditions of knowledge production and 
distribution. Open source, open content and open access are also 
the most tangible result of the shift towards e-Science and 
digital networking. Yet, this article takes issue with widespread 
misperceptions about the nature of this shift. The focus is on 
knowledge distribution and scholarly publishing. It is argued, on 
the one hand, that for the academy there principally is no 
digital dilemma surrounding copyright and there is no 
contradiction between open science and the knowledge-based 
economy if profits are made from nonexclusive rights. On the 
other hand, pressure for the "digital doubling" of research 
articles in OA repositories (so-called green road) is misguided 
and OA publishing (so-called gold road) has no future outside 
biomedicine. Commercial publishers must understand that business 
models based on the transfer of copyright have no future either.
Digital technology and its economics favour the severance of 
distribution from certification.

What is required of universities and governments, scholars and 
publishers, is to clear the way for digital innovations in 
knowledge distribution and scholarly publishing by enabling the 
emergence of a competitive market that is based on nonexclusive 
rights. This requires no change in the law but merely an end to 
the praxis of copyright transfer and exclusive licensing. The 
best way forward is the adoption of standard copyright licenses 
that reserve some rights, namely Attribution and No Derivative 
Works, but otherwise will allow for the unlimited reproduction, 
dissemination and use of the research article, commercial uses 
included.

I would like to thank Theresa Velden for helping my to clarify 
the structure of the argument. Paul Ginsparg (ArXiv), Thomas 
Krichel (RePEc) and Gregg Gordon (SSRN) I thank for helping me 
think through the issue of "first copy cost" for digital guild 
publishing.

The Fondazione Anonio Ruberti (Roma, Italia) with EIROforum 
(European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN); European 
Fusion Development Agreement (EFDA); European Molecular Biology 
Laboratory (EMBL); European Space Agency (ESA); European Southern 
Observatory (ESO); European Synchrotron Radiation Facility 
(ESRF); Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) provided the scholarship 
that made the research possible. It was undertaken as a Visiting 
Fellow at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies.

Chris Armbruster
Research Network 1989
Founder and Executive Director
http://www.cee-socialscience.net/1989/

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu on behalf of Janice Kuta
Sent: Wed 5/9/2007 5:27 AM
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: Scholarly Publishing Groups Issue White Paper on 
Academic Use of Journal Content

FOR RELEASE 9 MAY 2007

Scholarly Publishing Groups Issue White Paper on Academic Use of
Journal Content

Three prestigious organizations representing the international
scholarly publishing community today issued a White Paper on the
academic use of journal content.  The position paper was issued
by the International Association of Scientific, Technical and
Medical Publishers (STM), the Professional and Scholarly
Publishing Division of the Association of American Publishers
(AAP/PSP) and the Association of Learned and Professional Society
Publishers (ALPSP) in an effort to create a more balanced
understanding of the actual rights policies in place at most
journals, and in the hope of tempering the often overheated
rhetoric regarding the role of copyright in scholarly
communication.

<snip>