Good to read,,, ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Subbiah Arunachalam <[email protected]> Date: Wed, May 20, 2009 at 9:59 AM Subject: [bytesforall_readers] Let us stop gifting away copyright To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
Friends: For years Indian scientists - employed by Indian universities and research institutions and receiving salaries and research funds from Government of India agencies - have been giving away copyright to research they perform to journal publishers, most of them commercial publishers operating from the West. It is indeed surprising that such highly educated and intelligent people have been gifting away copyright to work performed with taxpayers' money for so many years. Attention has been drawn to this unethical practice several times in the recent past. There are simple ways of retaining copyright [either by the author or by the author's institution] using any one of several addenda that are now available from organizations such as Science Commons and Association of Research Libraries and SPARC. Scientists workig in US Government research laboratories cannot surrender copyright to their papers to journal publishers. Why cannot we adopt such a practice in India? I urge the Academies, the Society for Scientific Values, the Delhi Science Forum, Knowledge Commons, Bytesforall, the science advisers to the government and heads of the different science agencies of the Government of India to put an end to this unhealthy practice. Science Academies and professional societies in the country ought to discuss such issues. I reproduce a news story that appeared in today's edition of *Open Access News* to show the deleterious consequences of gifting away copyright to journal publishers. Best wishes. Subbiah Arunachalam ====== *Author rights and Elsevier's fake journals<http://www.earlham.edu/%7Epeters/fos/2009/05/author-rights-and-elseviers-fake.html> * John Mark Ockerbloom, What you’re asked to give away<http://everybodyslibraries.com/2009/05/08/what-youre-asked-to-give-away/> , Everybody’s Libraries, May 8, 2009. If you’ve published an article in an Elsevier <http://www.elsevier.com/> journal, you might have missed an interesting aspect of the contract you signed with them to get published. It goes something like this: I grant Elsevier the exclusive right to select and reproduce any portions they choose from my research article to market drugs, medical devices, or any other commercial product, regardless of whether I approve of the product or the marketing. What, you don’t remember agreeing to that? Actually, the words above are mine. But while it isn’t explicitly stated in author agreements, Elsevier authors usually grant that right implicitly. Elsevier’s typical author agreement <http://www.elsevier.com/framework_authors/pdfs/JPA_example.pdf> requires you to sign over your entire copyright to them<http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authorsview.authors/copyright#why>. Why ask for the whole copyright, instead of just, say, first serial rights<http://www.trippingthemuse.com/archives/serial-rights>, and whatever else suffices for them to include the article in their journal and article databases? Elsevier explains: Elsevier wants to ensure that it has the exclusive distribution rights for all media. Copyright transfer eliminates any ambiguity or uncertainty about Elsevier’s ability to distribute, sub-license and protect the article from unauthorized copying or alteration. That “unauthorized” would be “unauthorized by them”. Not “unauthorized by you”. Once you sign, you’ve given up the right to authorize copying or alteration, or any other rights in the copyright, except for rights they offer back to you<http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authorsview.authors/copyright#whatrights>. For instance, you can’t “sub-license” your article for anything Elsevier deems “commercial purposes”. But they can, and do. And sometimes those commercial purposes have had questionable ethics. The Scientist <http://www.the-scientist.com/>reported about a week ago that “Merck published [a] fake journal<http://www.the-scientist.com/templates/trackable/display/blog.jsp?type=blog&o_url=blog/display/55671&id=55671>” with Elsevier. ... [O]ne of the publication’s “honorary editors” admitted to the Scientist that it included marketing material, but that “[i]t also had papers that were excerpted from other peer-reviewed journals. I don’t think it’s fair to say it was totally a marketing journal.” But that was what Merck<http://www.merck.com/> paid Elsevier for, and the excerpts from real Elsevier-acquired research articles helped the publication as a whole look like disinterested scholarship instead of advertising. ... Excerpta Medica still has the right to cherry-pick from any article signed over to Elsevier in any of their marketing publications. Or, as they announce to potential clients, “we can leverage the resources of the world’s largest medical and scientific publisher<http://www.excerptamedica.com//index.cfm?vID=3F5AD0FE-C09F-296A-619353F09286EB31>.” Even with what Elsevier considers “proper use of disclosure language”, some authors might not want their writing used in this way. ... [image: Permanent link to this post]<http://www.earlham.edu/%7Epeters/fos/2009/05/author-rights-and-elseviers-fake.html> Posted by Gavin Baker at 5/19/2009 06:05:00 PM. __._,_.___ Messages in this topic <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_readers/message/13501;_ylc=X3oDMTM2Nzl2bjBzBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzM1MTUzNjMEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDA0NzM4BG1zZ0lkAzEzNTAxBHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA3Z0cGMEc3RpbWUDMTI0Mjc5Mzg1MQR0cGNJZAMxMzUwMQ-->( 1) Reply (via web post) <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_readers/post;_ylc=X3oDMTJxM2NuaG1pBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzM1MTUzNjMEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDA0NzM4BG1zZ0lkAzEzNTAxBHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA3JwbHkEc3RpbWUDMTI0Mjc5Mzg1MQ--?act=reply&messageNum=13501>| Start a new topic <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_readers/post;_ylc=X3oDMTJldjJmdjhmBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzM1MTUzNjMEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDA0NzM4BHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA250cGMEc3RpbWUDMTI0Mjc5Mzg1MQ--> Messages<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_readers/messages;_ylc=X3oDMTJlNmdwcTR1BF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzM1MTUzNjMEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDA0NzM4BHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA21zZ3MEc3RpbWUDMTI0Mjc5Mzg1MA--> [image: Yahoo! Groups]<http://groups.yahoo.com/;_ylc=X3oDMTJkbGtma3U1BF9TAzk3NDc2NTkwBGdycElkAzM1MTUzNjMEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDA0NzM4BHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA2dmcARzdGltZQMxMjQyNzkzODUx> Change settings via the Web<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_readers/join;_ylc=X3oDMTJmNmxtbWYzBF9TAzk3NDc2NTkwBGdycElkAzM1MTUzNjMEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDA0NzM4BHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA3N0bmdzBHN0aW1lAzEyNDI3OTM4NTE->(Yahoo! ID required) Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest<[email protected]?subject=email+delivery:+Digest>| Switch format to Traditional<[email protected]?subject=change+delivery+format:+Traditional> Visit Your Group <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_readers;_ylc=X3oDMTJkNzFjbWQ3BF9TAzk3NDc2NTkwBGdycElkAzM1MTUzNjMEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDA0NzM4BHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA2hwZgRzdGltZQMxMjQyNzkzODUx>| Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use <http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/> | Unsubscribe <[email protected]?subject=> Recent Activity - 1 New Members<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_readers/members;_ylc=X3oDMTJmbWVkZ2k0BF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzM1MTUzNjMEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDA0NzM4BHNlYwN2dGwEc2xrA3ZtYnJzBHN0aW1lAzEyNDI3OTM4NTA-> Visit Your Group <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_readers;_ylc=X3oDMTJldjNmZ3E1BF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzM1MTUzNjMEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDA0NzM4BHNlYwN2dGwEc2xrA3ZnaHAEc3RpbWUDMTI0Mjc5Mzg1MA--> Give Back Yahoo! for Good<http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylc=X3oDMTJtcjV1dG5pBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BF9wAzEEZ3JwSWQDMzUxNTM2MwRncnBzcElkAzE3MDUwMDQ3MzgEc2VjA25jbW9kBHNsawNicmFuZARzdGltZQMxMjQyNzkzODUw;_ylg=1/SIG=11314uv3k/**http%3A//brand.yahoo.com/forgood> Get inspired by a good cause. Y! Toolbar Get it Free!<http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylc=X3oDMTJvOWJuNG43BF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BF9wAzIEZ3JwSWQDMzUxNTM2MwRncnBzcElkAzE3MDUwMDQ3MzgEc2VjA25jbW9kBHNsawN0b29sYmFyBHN0aW1lAzEyNDI3OTM4NTA-;_ylg=1/SIG=11c6dvmk9/**http%3A//toolbar.yahoo.com/%3F.cpdl=ygrps> easy 1-click access to your groups. Yahoo! Groups Start a group<http://groups.yahoo.com/start;_ylc=X3oDMTJvcW9wN2JiBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BF9wAzMEZ3JwSWQDMzUxNTM2MwRncnBzcElkAzE3MDUwMDQ3MzgEc2VjA25jbW9kBHNsawNncm91cHMyBHN0aW1lAzEyNDI3OTM4NTA-> in 3 easy steps. Connect with others. . __,_._,___ -- ┌─────────────────────────┐ │ Narendra Sisodiya ( नरेन्द्र सिसोदिया ) │ R&D Engineer │ Web : http://narendra.techfandu.org │ Twitter : http://tinyurl.com/dz7e4a └─────────────────────────┘ --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ l...@iitd community mailing list -- http://groups.google.com/group/iitdlug -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
