Copyright: example of rights-sharing with copyright transfer

From: Heather Morrison <heatherm_at_ELN.BC.CA>
Date: Sun, 15 Feb 2009 15:27:53 -0800

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As ONE illustration of how rights are generally shared between author and
publisher, even with a copyright transfer agreement, let us look at the
Author's Rights page of Elsevier, a publisher requiring copyright transfer.
Clearly, even with copyright transfer to the publisher, Elsevier is
recognizing a broad range of rights that remain with the author. For
example, as archivangelists have been pointing out for years, Elsevier
authors retain full rights to deposit preprints and author's
post-peer-reviewed manuscripts for open access in institutional
repositories; so that there is nothing between an Elsevier author and an OA
copy in the IR, except for a few keystrokes. Elsevier here explicitly
states permission for sharing with research colleagues, as long as this is
not for commercial purposes; it is not necessary to state this, but it is
helpful.

Please note that this is not meant as an endorsement of Elsevier's Author's
Rights; this is traditional copyright transfer, which is not necessary.
Even many traditional publishers (such as Nature) have much more
author-centric agreements. I would recommend that authors publishing with
Elsevier use an Author's Addendum, to ensure full rights retention; for
example, Elsevier permission for self-archiving is limited to IRs and
personal / departmental websites, which is not helpful to authors preferring
to deposit in disciplinary repositories such as E-LIS.

Excerpt from Elsevier Authors' Page:

       What rights do I retain as a journal author*?

As a journal author, you retain rights for large number of author uses,
including use by your employing institute or company. These rights are
retained and permitted without the need to obtain specific permission from
Elsevier. These include:

    * the right to make copies (print or electric) of the journal article
for their own personal use, including for their own classroom teaching use;
    * the right to make copies and distribute copies (including via e-mail)
of the journal article to research colleagues, for personal use by such
colleagues (but not for Commercial Purposes**, as listed below);
    * the right to post a pre-print version of the journal article on
Internet web sites including electronic pre-print servers, and to retain
indefinitely such version on such servers or sites (see also our information
on electronic preprints for a more detailed discussion on these points);
    * the right to post a revised personal version of the text of the final
journal article (to reflect changes made in the peer review process) on the
author's personal or institutional web site or server, incorporating the
complete citation and with a link to the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) of
the article;
    * the right to present the journal article at a meeting or conference
and to distribute copies of such paper or article to the delegates attending
the meeting;
    * for the author?s employer, if the journal article is a ?work for
hire?, made within the scope of the author?s employment, the right to use
all or part of the information in (any version of) the journal article for
other intra-company use (e.g. training), including by posting the article on
secure, internal corporate intranets;
    * patent and trademark rights and rights to any process or procedure
described in the journal article;
    * the right to include the journal article, in full or in part, in a
thesis or dissertation;
    * the right to use the journal article or any part thereof in a printed
compilation of works of the author, such as collected writings or lecture
notes (subsequent to publication of the article in the journal); and
    * the right to prepare other derivative works, to extend the journal
article into book-length form, or to otherwise re-use portions or excerpts
in other works, with full acknowledgement of its original publication in the
journal.

*Please Note: The rights listed above apply to journal authors only

From:
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authorsview.authors/copyright#whatrights

Added comment: in addition to the above, please note that the Elsevier
copyright transfer agreement has long made exceptions for authors of
"works-for-hire", such as federal government employees, who cannot transfer
copyright. In other words, even with a very conservative approach to
traditional copyright, some articles are actually published with no transfer
of copyright at all.

Any opinion expessed 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
Received on Sun Feb 15 2009 - 23:38:51 GMT

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