Copyright: keep or assign to pblishers


Subject: Copyright: keep or assign to pblishers
From: Jeremy Rees (ivain@easynet.co.uk)
Date: to 23 syys   1999 - 12:49:41 EEST


Dear Denise

I was very interested in your list message that Barbara Schleihagen posted
to the ecup-list.

I have much sympathy with the points you raise, particularly in the role of
an author who is not employed by an academic institution but is invited to
contribute to academic journals. Such writing can take up a
disproportionate amount of time, especially for refereed articles.

In response to the inevitable contract form to assign exclusive rights (or,
at best, joint copyright) to the publisher I reply that I am quite happy to
assign non-exclusive rights to them but always receive the response that
they can only operate on the basis of exclusive rights as it would be
unethical for them to specify a different copyright agreement for one
author without granting the same to all.

I personally feel that it would be more equitable for authors to assign
non-exclusive copyright to academic publishers, on the basis of a six-month
exclusive right (during which the author can use extracts in other
contexts, duly credited to the academic journal) and, thereafter they
should have to seek the author's consent, which should not unreasonably be
witheld. This then raises the question of payments for subsequent use....

This also raises the spectre of publication delays (sometimes running into
years) attendant upon much academic journal publishing. This could be
dealt with by making the exclusive element being limited to six months from
the delivery of the final corrected manuscript to the publisher or perhaps
12 months from the initial commissioning date. Neither is totally
satisfactory.

I was interested to read of the National Electronic Article Depository
(NEAR). Can anyone give a lead to more information about this - and to any
equivalent initiatives outside the USA ?

with best wishes

Jeremy Rees

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Jeremy Rees, Director
International Visual Arts Information Network (IVAIN)
24 Lots Road, London SW10 0QF
phone : 0171 376 8759 (international +44 171 376 8759)
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e-mail : ivain@easynet.co.uk
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