Copyright, Open Access and re-use rights

Dr Jonathan DaviesAU Data Protection & Copyright Manager

Oct 2014

By ……..?

Main questions

• What do publishers want from you?• How do they do this and what is the document

called?• What rights will they let you keep?• What limitations do they impose on people

wanting to re-use this work?• What is the impact on OA policies?• Can you do anything to change any of this, or

comply more effectively?

What do publishers want from you?

• In most cases, as much as they can legally secure by getting you to sign the agreement document.

• Frequently this is the worst case scenario which amounts to signing away ALL rights over the work

• A number of agreements are not quite this extreme and these amount to a joint agreement over future use

• And everything in between!

What is it called?

• Publication Agreement (MIT)• Copyright Transfer Form (CUP)• Copyright and Consent Form• Confirmation of Copyright Transfer• Journal/Author Agreement• Copyright Assignment• Article publishing Agreement …

Elements• Have to confirm you are the ‘sole owner’ or have

authority from other authors to assign/licence rights• Have to confirm that there is no infringement of 3rd

party rights (i.e. all necessary permission have been acquired)

• Have to confirm it doesn’t break any other laws (e.g. libel)

• What they want you to hand over• What rights/allowances they leave you with• What else can be done with the work and or

pre/post prints etc (if you’re lucky!)

What rights will they let you keep?

• Written by lawyers FOR lawyers• ‘Agreement’ suggests just that – a sharing of

rights – ‘reserve for yourself a non-exclusive licence to …’• Use in own teaching• Re-publish in a book you author/edit • Self-archive

• Occasional recognition of ‘moral rights’• But …

What rights will they let you keep?• Frequently these ‘agreements’ don’t vary much

from the circumstances where by you assign ALL of your copyrights over to the publisher

• “I hereby assign to XXXX full copyright in all forms …”

• Usually, the author retains similar ‘rights’ but they are often expressed in different ways, e.g. a table of what post/pre prints you can archive

• Sometimes extra rights accorded – e.g. the right to authorise someone else to copy the work for certain purposes

What rights will they let you keep?

• Sometimes you are not expected to ‘transfer copyright’, merely to ‘grant a licence’. But again, this practically could amount to the same thing as previously mentioned.

• ‘Devil is in the detail’ – so read the small print and be aware of variations in allowances

Limitations on re-use/impact on OA

• NOT about what you can do, but the downstream effect that this has on people who use any copies (you or the publishers) make available and ultimately the notion of OA.

• e.g. when can it be made available, to whom, what can they do with it (print it out, use for teaching ..?)

• Frequently these details are not included in the licence/agreement/transfer – deliberately?

Limitations on re-use/impact on OA

• What type of re-use might be allowed:• CC Licences? • e.g. CC BY-NC-ND • Other – not ‘branded’ licence but described in

clauses in the agreement or more often in separate document

List of CC Licences

• CC-0 [donated to public domain – no copyright]• CC-BY [remix, alter, tweak etc]• CC-BY-SA [as above, but must licence identically]• CC-BY-NC [as CC-BY but no commercial use]• CC-BY-NC-SA [as above but must licence

identically]• CC-BY-ND [cannot change or extract parts]• CC-BY-NC-ND [as above but no commercial use]• (version number in brackets)

Why be concerned about all this now?

• Most research funding comes with the expectation of Open Access – which means that at least the post-print version (publishers’ PDF where possible) of your article needs to be available for free within set embargo periods

Who’s that?

• RCUK, Wellcome, European Research funding, and now HEFCE, amongst others

• And Open Access doesn’t just mean “free-to-read”, it also means “free-to-reuse”

• Currently only RCUK have been explicit about the licence required – CC-BY- but all the others are watching closely…(Wellcome insists on CC-BY when it pays for an APC, for example)

Can you do anything to change this?

• http://copyrighttoolbox.surf.nl/copyrighttoolbox/authors/licence/

• US advice? http://www.sparc.arl.org/resources/authors/addendum

• Alternative licences – in effect, a licence to publish and no more.