Fair use / fair dealing - a fantasy?

[Heather Morrison <heatherm@eln.bc.ca>]

Sandy Thatcher wrote:  Most journal contracts I am familiar with 
specify the transfer of "all rights." Such a transfer means what 
it says, quite literally, and it is entirely unnecessary 
therefore to include any specific waiver of fair use rights. The 
very act of transferring all rights effectively accomplishes 
that, and nothing more needs to be added.  Full post at: 
http://www.library.yale.edu/~llicense/ListArchives/0706/msg00001.html

If this were true, then for such works there is no fair use / 
fair dealing - and never was!  This is ludicrous!

Publisher/author agreements vary a great deal with respect to 
transfer of rights.  Agreements that give publishers rights to 
publish, first publication, and often redistribution, but leave 
all other rights in the hands of authors, are now common, as is 
the use of Creative Commons licensing.

Authors with options for quality publishing are well advised to 
seek the publication route that leaves them their rights.  No 
wonder submissions at Hindawi are rising!

Any opinion expressed in this e-mail is that of the author alone, 
and does not represent the opinion or policy of BC Electronic 
Library Network or Simon Fraser University Library.

Heather Morrison, MLIS
The Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics
http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.com