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RE: Haworth copyright policy clarification
In the spirit of welcoming conversation here's a few more views
on the form (the comments not necessarily confined only to
Haworth assignments).
1. It might be nice for publishers to print these forms using a
reasonable font size. When authors are being asked to sign away
the lion's share of their copyright I'm sure that they would
appreciate being able to read an important legal document without
the aid of a magnifying glass!
2. I'm not entirely sure why this form, and others, seem to make
it something of a virtue that it is not restrictive in relation
to other rights and, for example, refers, to the fact that
employees/institutions retain other proprietary intellectual
property rights. Of course they do! The fact that they do so is a
simple matter of law and not something that publishers are in a
position to interfere with or take anyway in a form such as this.
By taking out some of these unnecessary statements it might give
more room to make it clear to authors exactly what they are
signing away.
3. In terms of oral presentation rights. I don't know the
position in the US but in the UK the Copyright Designs and
Patents Act 1988, section 59 allows any person (not just a
copyright owner) to read a "reasonable" extract from a published,
copyright literary work. There may always be debate on what is
"reasonable" but it is highly unlikely that anyone would fall
foul of this provision by reading out a substantial part of such
a work, at a gathering such as a conference. In any case,
various other statutory defences to infringement of copyright in
the UK would also allow anyone to do this. It frequently
interests me how publishers "license" things which the general
law often allows in any case - and to a far wider audience than
the original author!
4. To be honest I still have some difficulty in calling this, and
similar documents from other publishers, a "LIMITED COPYRIGHT
TRANSFER." Admittedly it is pretty limited (although reasonably
representative) in terms of the residual limited rights reserved
to the author. But I don't think that's what is meant!
5. I also still find it wholly unnecessary to take copyright, in
an unsolicited work, which the publishers representatives or
referees have not even read and may decide not to publish!
Frankly, I think that that is inappropriate. You do not need
ownership of copyright to put an article out to refereeing
procedures, or simply to consider it for publication and I think
it is an oppressive and unnecessary approach. Copyright should
only pass on acceptance of the manuscript and it should not be
made a pre-condition for its consideration. I don't know about
the US but I wonder how a UK court would construe such an
"agreement" - notwithstanding the Entire Agreement clause!
Regards
Laurence W. Bebbington
Law Librarian/IS Copyright Officer
Information Services
Hallward Library
University Park
The University of Nottingham
Nottingham
-----Original Message-----
[mailto:owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Sean Beppler
Sent: 27 March 2007 23:12
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: Haworth copyright policy clarification
With apologies for cross-posting, we would like to respond to
recent comment on several listservs about Haworth, copyright
transfer, and manuscript submission to journals.
It was suggested that Haworth requires copyright transfer before
beginning the review process to allow us to retain copyright for
all submissions, published or unpublished. That's a lot of
material, and far more copyright than would be productive.
In fact, language in the "2. Limited Copyright transfer" section
of the Publication Agreement shows that copyright transfer is
accomplished "if accepted and published by the journal..."
Because this important qualification appears to be overlooked in
a quick reading of the agreement, we're adding the following
plain-English statement:
"Copyright transfer to The Haworth Press, Inc. shall
automatically revert to the author in the event the paper is not
published." The addition will be posted to all online versions
of both the Instructions for Authors and Publication Agreement by
the middle of next week.
Some are presuming, too, that our publication agreement is
uncommonly restrictive, but please note that our publication
agreement provides for limited copyright transfer that includes
significant author freedoms. Authors retain the following:
1. Proprietary rights, other than copyright, such as patent
rights
2. Oral presentation right
3. Preprint distribution rights, including posting as electronic
files on the contributor's own website for personal or
professional use, on the contributor's university or corporate
intranet or network, but not for either commercial or systematic
third party sales or dissemination, e.g., interlibrary loan or
document delivery, and the author may update the preprint with
the final version of the article
4. Photocopying, online transmittal, or downloading rights to any
colleagues for the advancement of scientific research (with the
exception of systematic distribution as described above)
5. Publication rights in any book written or edited by the
author, in any edited work for which the contributor is the sole
editor or senior editor, or teaching coursepack prepared or
written by the author.
For any of the above, no further permission is required from us.
We ask only that authors include the copyright line, information
about Haworth document delivery, and if reprinted electronically,
a hotlink to Haworth. And if the work is reprinted
electronically, there must be no charge for viewing the article.
This is quite different from the older full-transfer of copyright
more common to older scholarly publishing.
We've been grateful for the opportunity to discuss these matters
offline with a number of individuals who have posted about these
matters.
Catalysts for learning are always welcome, particularly when it
enables increased understanding between libraries and publishers.
We welcome the conversation.
Kathryn Rutz
Vice President, Editorial
The Haworth Press, Inc.
Binghamton, New York 13904