[GOAL] Re: Elsevier is taking down papers from Academia.edu

[Peter Murray-Rust]

On Sat, Dec 7, 2013 at 7:21 PM, Heather Morrison <
Heather.Morrison at uottawa.ca> wrote:

>  I argue that the problem here is not green open access. It's Elsevier.
> Even their version of CC-BY (with exclusive license to publish) does not
> resolve this problem.
>

The only version of CC-BY is that created by Creative Commons:

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode

It may not be arbitrarily modified, nor can its use be restricted or
modified by additional exterior protocols: From section 8: d and e



*No term or provision of this License shall be deemed waived and no breach
consented to unless such waiver or consent shall be in writing and signed
by the party to be charged with such waiver or consent.This License
constitutes the entire agreement between the parties with respect to the
Work licensed here. There are no understandings, agreements or
representations with respect to the Work not specified here. Licensor shall
not be bound by any additional provisions that may appear in any
communication from You. This License may not be modified without the mutual
written agreement of the Licensor and You.*

I have done a moderate amount of exploration of Elsevier's "Open Access"
and have not observed any modified CC-BY licences - the licence statement
refers back to the CC authority. I have observed CC-BY licences on
documents which also assert

"(C) Elsevier; All rights Reserved"

which would be overridden be clauses d and e. I have also observed articles
labelled CC-BY behind paywalls and have alerted the world (including
Elsevier) to this. It would be legal to copy these articles and post them
openly anywhere.





-- 
Peter Murray-Rust
Reader in Molecular Informatics
Unilever Centre, Dep. Of Chemistry
University of Cambridge
CB2 1EW, UK
+44-1223-763069
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