On 10 Oct 2012, at 23:37, Jean-Claude Guédon wrote:

> Jan,
> 
> I do not think it does, provided that the *wherever* quest for libre that you 
> suggest does not get confused with the *absolute need* to get libre and 
> nothing else.

That would be silly. But the *absolute need* is there, for data-intensive 
disciplines, or they can't do the research they need to do. By all means, 
mandate for the lowest common denominator, but don't frustrate efforts to reach 
further.

> What I think concerns Stevan is that some people get so hung up on libre as a 
> result of the systematic nature of the *wherever* that they downgrade gratis 
> to the level of an ugly, ultimately unacceptable, compromise.

Well, it *is* the lowest common OA denominator.

> At that point, perfection becomes the enemy of the good. Peter Suber has 
> written some good pages in his book on Open Access, by the way.

A bit of a platitude, Jean-Claude. If that were applied to science and 
knowledge discovery we wouldn't be anywhere near we are now.

> 
> Also, if libre is not currently realistically possible, why go for it, except 
> to reassert a principle?

'Libre' (let's call it BOAI-compliant OA, for the avoidance of doubt) is 
certainly realistically possible. *Universal* BOAI-compliant OA may not be as 
yet.

> And going for gratis does not prevent reasserting the ultimate goal of libre, 
> while accepting the temporary gain of gratis.

Not just reasserting, but working actively on the spread of BOAI-compliant OA. 
'Green', ocular access is a way station; not the goal. What's wrong with that? 
Arguing that advocating BOAI-compliant OA should wait until everybody has 
arrived at the way station is not
sensible. That could take ages. The world, and science, moves on.

> 
> Finally, there are negotiating situations where speaking only in terms of 
> gratis is probably wise to achieve at least gratis. Lawyer-style minds are 
> often concerned about the toe-into-the-door possibility. In such situations, 
> the libre imperative could indeed work against the gratis.

The Dutch expression for this is "cold water fear". I think the term FUD 
approaches this in English. Of course, in negotiations it's easier still to go 
for minimal, ocular OA with a two-year embargo. But proper negotiations are 
about finding out what the important issues are for the other party. They often 
result in a win-win, at least to a degree. Making articles mineable and the 
mined results reusable may not be the biggest barrier for publishers. In fact, 
I suspect they are easier for publishers to 'give away' than ocular access, 
because they don't threaten their business models directly. Especially if mined 
data can be made attributable and 'link-backable' — sorry, I can't think of an 
appropriate proper English word here — to the author and the article/journal 
from which it was mined (see http://openphacts.org/ and http://nanopub.org/ for 
instance).

> I suspect may librarian/publisher negotiations would fall in this category 
> and I suspect many publishers approach the whole issue of open access with a 
> cautionary mind.
> 
> That is the the best I can do on your question. It is a tough question 
> because each category of actors (researchers, librarians, publishers, 
> administrators) will have a different take on it.

I agree with you on it being a tough question. 

> 
> Best,
> 
> Jean-Claude
> 

Best,

Jan Velterop
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Le mercredi 10 octobre 2012 à 21:53 +0100, Jan Velterop a écrit :
>> 
>> Jean-Claude,
>> 
>> I get that. But I have a question that I don't think has been answered yet. 
>> I'll phrase the question differently: Do you think that going for libre 
>> wherever we can, impedes the chances of achieving gratis where libre is not 
>> currently realistically possible?
>> 
>> Best,
>> 
>> Jan
>> 
>> On 10 Oct 2012, at 21:04, Guédon Jean-Claude wrote:
>> 
>> > Jan,
>> > 
>> > Please read again what I wrote. I repeat:
>> > 
>> > "The only concern one should have in this kind of tactical choice is 
>> > whether the intermediate step may act against the ideal goal. In this 
>> > particular case, I do not see how going first for gratis, and then for 
>> > libre, would impede the goal of ultimately reaching libre."
>> > 
>> > I believe that what I wrote is not ambiguous or difficult to understand.
>> > 
>> > Ot, to put it differently: No, it does not mean... etc.
>> > 
>> > Jean-Claude
>> > 
>> > 
>> > -------- Message d'origine--------
>> > De: [email protected] de la part de Jan Velterop
>> > Date: mer. 10/10/2012 13:51
>> > À: Global Open Access List (Successor of AmSci)
>> > Cc: SPARC Open Access Forum; BOAI Forum
>> > Objet : [GOAL] Re: RE :  Re: On the proposal to raise the Green OA 
>> > goalpost fromGratis to CC-BY
>> > 
>> > Jean-Claude,
>> > 
>> > Does this mean that you think trying for ideal OA and settling for Gratis 
>> > Ocular Access where ideal OA is not yet possible, is acting against the 
>> > ideal goal? If so, on what basis?
>> > 
>> > Best,
>> > 
>> > Jan
>> > 
>> > On 10 Oct 2012, at 18:25, Guédon Jean-Claude wrote:
>> > 
>> >> I have been observing this discussion from afar. It has always seemed to 
>> >> me that Stevan was distinguishing between ideal OA and reachable OA. 
>> >> Gratis OA, if I understand him right, is but the first step, and he 
>> >> argues (rightly in my own opinion) that we should not forfeit gratis 
>> >> simply because we do not reach the ideal solution right away.
>> >> 
>> >> The only concern one should have in this kind of tactical choice is 
>> >> whether the intermediate step may act against the ideal goal. In this 
>> >> particular case, I do not see how going first for gratis, and then for 
>> >> libre, would impede the goal of ultimately reaching libre.
>> >> 
>> >> Jean-Claude Guédon
>> >> 
>> >> 
>> >> -------- Message d'origine--------
>> >> De: [email protected] de la part de Jan Velterop
>> >> Date: mer. 10/10/2012 12:07
>> >> À: Global Open Access List (Successor of AmSci)
>> >> Cc: SPARC Open Access Forum; BOAI Forum
>> >> Objet : [GOAL] Re: On the proposal to raise the Green OA goalpost 
>> >> fromGratis to CC-BY
>> >> 
>> >> Stevan is not trying to achieve open access. (Although, admittedly, the 
>> >> definition of open access is so much subject to revision, that it depends 
>> >> on the day you looked what it, or one of its flavours, actually means or 
>> >> can mean - for the avoidance of doubt, my anchor point is the definition 
>> >> found here). 
>> >> 
>> >> What Stevan is advocating is just gratis 'ocular' online access (no 
>> >> machine-access, no text- or data-mining, no reuse of any sort - cross). 
>> >> If that is the case, I have no beef with him. We're just on different 
>> >> ships to different destinations which makes travelling in convoy 
>> >> impossible. The destination of the ship I'm on was mapped out at the BOAI 
>> >> in December 2001. I find it important to stay on course. The trouble 
>> >> arises where he regards the course of the ship that I am on as a threat 
>> >> to the course of his ship. That is misguided.
>> >> 
>> >> Jan Velterop
>> >> 
>> >> 
>> >> On 10 Oct 2012, at 14:49, Stevan Harnad wrote:
>> >> 
>> >>> ** Cross-Posted **
>> >>> 
>> >>> This is a response to a proposal (by some individuals in the researcher 
>> >>> community) to raise the goalposts of Green OA self-archiving and Green 
>> >>> OA mandates from where they are now (free online access) to CC-BY (free 
>> >>> online access plus unlimited re-use and re-publication rights):
>> >>> 
>> >>> 1. The goal-posts for Green OA self-archiving and Green OA mandates 
>> >>> should on no account be raised to CC-BY (free online access PLUS 
>> >>> unlimited re-use and re-publication rights). That would be an absolute 
>> >>> disaster for Green OA growth, Green OA mandate growth, and hence global 
>> >>> OA growth (and hence another triumph for the publisher lobby and 
>> >>> double-paid hybrid-Gold CC-BY). 
>> >>> 
>> >>> 2. The fundamental practical reason why global Green Gratis OA (free 
>> >>> online access) is readily reachable is precisely because it requires 
>> >>> only free online access and not more.
>> >>> 
>> >>> 3. That is also why 60% of journals endorse immediate, un-embargoed 
>> >>> Green OA today.
>> >>> 
>> >>> 4. That is also why repositories' Almost-OA Button can tide over user 
>> >>> needs during any embargo for the remaining 40% of journals.
>> >>> 
>> >>> 5. "Upgrading" Green OA and Green OA mandates to requiring CC-BY would 
>> >>> mean that most journals would immediately adopt Green OA embargoes, and 
>> >>> their length would be years, not months.
>> >>> 
>> >>> 6. It would also mean that emailing (or mailing) eprints would become 
>> >>> legally actionable, if the eprint was tagged and treated as CC-BY, 
>> >>> thereby doing in a half-century's worth of established scholarly 
>> >>> practice.
>> >>> 
>> >>> 7. And all because impatient ideology got the better of patient 
>> >>> pragmatics and realism, a few fields' urgent need for CC-BY was put 
>> >>> ahead of all fields' urgent need for free online access -- and another 
>> >>> publisher lobby victory was scored for double-paid hybrid Gold-CC-BY 
>> >>> (hence simply prolonging the worldwide status quo of mostly subscription 
>> >>> publishing and little OA).
>> >>> 
>> >>> 8. The reason for all this is also absolutely transparent to anyone who 
>> >>> is not in the grip of an ideology, a single-minded impatience for CC-BY, 
>> >>> or a conflict of interest: If Green OA self-archiving meant CC-BY then 
>> >>> any rival publisher would immediately be licensed to free-ride on any 
>> >>> subscription journal's content, offering it at cut-rate price in any 
>> >>> form, thereby undercutting all chances of the original publisher 
>> >>> recouping his costs: Hence for all journal publishers that would amount 
>> >>> to either ruin or a forced immediate conversion to Gold CC-BY... 
>> >>> 
>> >>> 9. ...If publishers allowed Green CC-BY self-archiving by authors, and 
>> >>> Green CC-BY mandates by their institutions, without legal action.
>> >>> 
>> >>> 10. But of course publishers would not allow the assertion of CC-BY by 
>> >>> its authors without legal action (and it is the fear of legal action 
>> >>> that motivates the quest for CC-BY!): 
>> >>> 
>> >>> 11. And the very real threat of legal action facing Green CC-BY 
>> >>> self-archiving by authors and Green CC-BY mandates by institutions 
>> >>> (unlike the bogus threat of legal action against Gratis Green 
>> >>> self-archiving and Gratis Green mandates) would of course put an end to 
>> >>> authors' providing Green OA and institutions' mandating Green OA.
>> >>> 
>> >>> 12. In theory, funders, unlike institutions, can mandate whatever they 
>> >>> like, since they are paying for the research: But if a funder Gold OA 
>> >>> mandate like Finch/RCUK's -- that denies fundees the right to publish in 
>> >>> any journal that does not offer either Gold CC-BY or Gratis-Green with 
>> >>> at most a 6-12 month embargo, and that only allows authors to pick Green 
>> >>> if the journal does not offer Gold -- is already doomed to author 
>> >>> resentment, resistance and non-compliance, then adding the constraint 
>> >>> that any Green must be CC-BY would be to court outright researcher 
>> >>> rebellion.
>> >>> 
>> >>> In short, the pre-emptive insistence upon CC-BY OA, if recklessly and 
>> >>> irrationally heeded, would bring the (already slow) progress toward OA, 
>> >>> and the promise of progress, to a grinding halt.
>> >>> 
>> >>> Finch/RCUK's bias toward paid Gold over cost-free Green was clearly a 
>> >>> result of self-interested publisher lobbying. But if it were compounded 
>> >>> by a premature and counterproductive insistence on CC-BY for all by a 
>> >>> small segment of the researcher community, then the prospects of OA 
>> >>> (both Gratis and CC-BY), so fertile if we at last take the realistic, 
>> >>> pragmatic course of mandating Gratis Green OA globally first, would 
>> >>> become as fallow as they have been for the past two decades, for decades 
>> >>> to come.
>> >>> 
>> >>> Some quote/comments follow below:
>> >>> 
>> >>> Jan Velterop: We've always heard, from Stevan Harnad, that the author 
>> >>> was the one who intrinsically had copyright on the manuscript version, 
>> >>> so could deposit it, as an open access article, in an open repository 
>> >>> irrespective of the publisher's views.
>> >>> 
>> >>> I said -- because it's true, and two decades' objective evidence shows 
>> >>> it -- that authors can deposit the refereed, final draft with no 
>> >>> realistic threat of copyright action from the publisher.
>> >>> 
>> >>> JV: If that is correct, then the author could also attach a CC-BY 
>> >>> licence to the manuscript version.
>> >>> 
>> >>> Nothing of the sort. Author self-archiving to provide free online access 
>> >>> (Gratis Green OA) is one thing -- claiming and dispensing re-use and 
>> >>> republication rights (CC-BY) is quite another.
>> >>> 
>> >>> JV: If it is incorrect, the author can't deposit the manuscript with 
>> >>> open access without the explicit permission of the publisher of his 
>> >>> final, published version, and the argument advanced for more than a 
>> >>> decade by Stevan Harnad is invalid.
>> >>> 
>> >>> Incorrect. Authors can make their refereed final drafts free for all 
>> >>> online without the prospect of legal action from the publisher, but not 
>> >>> with a CC-BY license to re-use and re-publish.
>> >>> 
>> >>> Moreover, for authors who elect to comply with publisher embargoes on 
>> >>> Green Gratis OA, there is the option of depositing in Closed Access and 
>> >>> relying on the Almost-OA Button to provide eprint-requesters with 
>> >>> individual eprints during the embargo. This likewise does not come with 
>> >>> CC-BY rights.
>> >>> 
>> >>> JV: Which is it? I think Stevan was right, and a manuscript can be 
>> >>> deposited with open access whether or not the publisher likes it. Whence 
>> >>> his U-turn, I don't know.
>> >>> 
>> >>> No U-turn whatsoever. Just never the slightest implication from me that 
>> >>> anything more than free online access was intended.
>> >>> 
>> >>> JV: But if he was right at first, and I believe that's the case, that 
>> >>> also means that it can be covered by a CC-BY licence. Repositories can't 
>> >>> attach the licence, but 'gold' OA publishers can't either. It's always 
>> >>> the author, as copyright holder by default. All repositories and OA 
>> >>> publishers can do is require it as a condition of acceptance (to be 
>> >>> included in the repository or to be published). What the publisher can 
>> >>> do if he doesn't like the author making available the manuscript with 
>> >>> open access, is apply the Ingelfinger rule or simply refuse to publish 
>> >>> the article.
>> >>> 
>> >>> The above is extremely unrealistic and counterproductive policy advice 
>> >>> to institutions and funders.
>> >>> 
>> >>> If an OA mandate is gratuitously upgraded to CC-BY it just means that 
>> >>> most authors will be unable to get their papers published in their 
>> >>> journal of choice if they comply with the mandate. So authors will not 
>> >>> comply with the mandate, and the mandate will fail.
>> >>> 
>> >>> Peter Murray-Rust: If we can establish the idea of Green-CC-BY as the 
>> >>> norm for deposition in repositories then I would embrace it 
>> >>> enthusiastically. I can see no downside other than that some publishers 
>> >>> will fight it. But they fight anyway 
>> >>> 
>> >>> The downside is that authors won't fight, and hence OA itself will lose 
>> >>> the global Gratis Green OA that is fully within its reach, and stay in 
>> >>> the non-OA limbo (neither Gratis nor CC-BY, neither Green nor Gold) in 
>> >>> which most research still is today -- and has been for two decades.
>> >>> 
>> >>> And the irony is that -- speaking practically rather than ideologically 
>> >>> -- the fastest and surest prospect for both CC-BY and Gold is to first 
>> >>> quickly reach global Gratis Green OA. Needlessly over-reaching can 
>> >>> undermine all of OA's objectives.
>> >>> 
>> >>> PMR: It would resolve all the apparent problems of the Finch reoprt etc. 
>> >>> It is only because Green licences are undefined that we have this 
>> >>> problem at all.
>> >>> 
>> >>> On the contrary: raising the Gratis Green 6-12 goalposts to immediate 
>> >>> Green CC-BY would make the Finch/RCUK a pure hybrid-Gold mandate and 
>> >>> nothing else. And its failure would be a resounding one.
>> >>> 
>> >>> PMR: And if we all agreed it could be launched for Open Access Week
>> >>> 
>> >>> That would certainly be a prominent historic epitaph for OA. I hope, on 
>> >>> the contrary, that pragmatic voices will be raised during OA week, so 
>> >>> that we can get on with reaching for the reachable instead of 
>> >>> gratuitously raising the goalposts to unrealistic heights.
>> >>> 
>> >>> Stevan Harnad
>> >>> _______________________________________________
>> >>> GOAL mailing list
>> >>> [email protected]
>> >>> http://mailman.ecs.soton.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/goal
>> >> 
>> >> 
>> >> 
>> >> _______________________________________________
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>> > 
>> > 
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