[GOAL] Re: OASPA Adds Licensing FAQs Page to Information Resources
About the display in some journal home pages of both a CC- License and an All rights reserved statement, Alicia Keys wrote: One set of licensing terms applies to their generic web content, and the other to specific articles that are surfaced via that website. This isn't a conflict in licensing terms as different things are being licensed, although the presentation could perhaps be a bit clearer. Quite an understatement! One wonders if this kind of confusion is deliberate, or simply evidence that copyright matters are not taken seriously enough by (some) publishers. For the previous example provided by Jeffrey (IJSAT's Terms of Use), I should have quoted the first part in its integrity. It reads: IJSAT's Web site and all of its materials, including, but not limited to, its software or HTML code, scripts, text, artwork, photographs, images, video, and audio (collectively, Materials) ... are protected ... To me, it's no instance of unclear presentation: How can one think that it such an encompassing definition of materials exclude the articles? Without being too technical, I must point out that even the serious publishers I mentioned could be perhaps a bit clearer in their presentation. For instance, BioMed Central uses a licence which seems to be both identical... and different form the CC-BY license: the legal code (which is mainly intended to be read and understood by lawyers) is the same, but the simple-language explanations for laypersons are a little bit different... Anyway, an advantage (for us) of this kind of fuzziness (laziness?) is that it allows us, in good faith, to choose the more favorable interpretation. Marc Couture ___ GOAL mailing list GOAL@eprints.org http://mailman.ecs.soton.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/goal
[GOAL] Re: OASPA Adds Licensing FAQs Page to Information Resources
Jeffrey Beall wrote: The two biggest problems I see are 1). Contradictory licensing statements, such as the one shown below I agree with the previous replies that there's no contradiction in the text displayed in the image provided. But I went to the journal's website (http://www.ijsat.com), and clicked on Terms of use. And there one finds a gross contradiction. Some excerpts: IJSAT's Web site and all of its materials, [...] are protected by copyright. [...] This is a limited license [...] subject to the following restrictions: (a) you may not copy, reproduce, publish, transmit, distribute, perform, display, post, modify, create derivative works from, sell, license or otherwise exploit this site or any of its Materials without our prior written permission; ([...] Any unauthorized copying, alteration, distribution, transmission, performance, display, or other use of these Materials is prohibited. This is of course completely at odds with the CC-BY license. Well, this journal is on Jeffrey's list (of predatory journals)... As to the fact that authors must transfer their copyright to the journal, I don't think it's a problem: in practice, the effect of the CC-BY license is exactly the same if it has been attached by the author or by the journal, according to which party holds the copyright. In particular, the -BY condition means attribution to the author, even if the journal holds the copyright. But, as a matter of principle, I think publishers should not require transfer of copyright when the CC-BY license is used. Serious open-access publishers like PLoS and Biomed Central don't do that. Marc Couture ___ GOAL mailing list GOAL@eprints.org http://mailman.ecs.soton.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/goal
[GOAL] Re: OASPA Adds Licensing FAQs Page to Information Resources
I agree with the consensus. I would add that the use of Creative Commons by itself (e.g. this is published under a Creative Commons licence ) is frequent and can be seriously misleading. Licensors should always state the exact variant of the licence. I'd also suggest we point out that CC-* is a complete legal statement of the terms of use and that any additional material is likely to be inconsistent or irrelevant or unnecessary. P. -- Peter Murray-Rust Reader in Molecular Informatics Unilever Centre, Dep. Of Chemistry University of Cambridge CB2 1EW, UK +44-1223-763069 ___ GOAL mailing list GOAL@eprints.org http://mailman.ecs.soton.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/goal
