[GOAL] CC-BY with copyright transfer - correction

Wed Sep 21 20:58:04 BST 2016

Dear All,

2 day ago OASPA has addressed 

“Best practices in licensing and attribution: What you need to know”

In a blog post

http://oaspa.org/best-practices-licensing-attribution-need-to-know/

The rights transfer chain is addressed in the following paragraph

“Instead of transferring rights exclusively to publishers, which is the approach usually followed in subscription publishing, in open-access publishing authors typically grant a non-exclusive license to the publisher to distribute the work, and all users and readers are granted rights to reuse the work under the terms of a Creative Commons license. CC-BY allows for unrestricted reuse of content to maximise the reach and influence of the work, subject only to the requirement that the author is given attribution.”

I appreciate that OASPA has picked-up the issue but believe firstly it needs to be treated in more detail and secondly OASPA should issue a recommendation based on this more detailed study.

This recommendation should include that publishers clearly explain their licensing practices so authors and funders can fully understand.

Regards,

Christoph

Christoph Bruch

Helmholtz Association

Helmholtz Open Science Coordination Office

http://os.helmholtz.de

W: +49 (0)331 28 82 87 61

M: +49 (0)151 14 09 39 68

Von: goal-bounces at eprints.org [mailto:goal-bounces at eprints.org] Im Auftrag von Christoph Bruch
Gesendet: Freitag, 27. Mai 2016 09:33
An: 'Global Open Access List (Successor of AmSci)'
Betreff: Re: [GOAL] CC-BY with copyright transfer - correction

Dear All,

I raised the issue transparency of rights chains in conversations with OASPA and CC.

>From what I understand there is no recommendation in this respect from OASPA and CC does not offer routinely a way to indicate who is the actual rights holder as they assume that this is the author.

As I see it, OASPA should develop in cooperation with the academic community recommendations that OA publication for which APC are paid should not involve any individual rights transfer to the publisher.

Instead the publisher should rely on the CC-BY license provided by the author.

Attention has to be paid to rights of included third party works such as illustrations.

I will suggest to CC to consider ways to better identify the licensor.

Regards,

Christoph

Christoph Bruch

Helmholtz Association

Helmholtz Open Science Coordination Office

http://oa.helmholtz.de

W: +49 (0)331 28 82 87 61

M: +49 (0)151 14 09 39 68

Von: goal-bounces at eprints.org [mailto:goal-bounces at eprints.org] Im Auftrag von Couture Marc
Gesendet: Mittwoch, 25. Mai 2016 19:46
An: Global Open Access List (Successor of AmSci)
Betreff: Re: [GOAL] CC-BY with copyright transfer - correction

Hi all,

Greg Tananbaum, from SPARC, informed me that there has been a change in 2014 in the  “Copyrights” criteria of “How open is it”, which now stress authors’ rights/permissions more than copyright ownership.

The original, 2013 version I discussed is the one available on SPARC own website; Greg told me this will soon be fixed. The version available on PLOS website should be the right one, though: https://www.plos.org/files/HowOpenIsIt_English.pdf 

The fact remains that the very notion of “author/publisher copyright ownership” should treated with much caution: as always, one must read the “small print”.

Marc Couture

De : goal-bounces at eprints.org [mailto:goal-bounces at eprints.org] De la part de Couture Marc
Envoyé : 24 mai 2016 08:50
À : Global Open Access List (Successor of AmSci)
Objet : Re: [GOAL] CC-BY with copyright transfer

Hi all,

I also agree that this is an important, but badly treated/understood issue.

For instance, in SPARC’s “How open is it” scale, author copyright ownership gives a minimum of 4 (over 5) for the “Copyrights” criterion, irrespective of possible restrictions that, as one sees, may amount in practice to no more rights than publisher ownership. Thus Elsevier’s exclusive licence gives them 4/5 for this criterion.

http://sparcopen.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/hoii_guide_rev4_web.pdf 

In 2012, in my response to SPARC’s Request for Comments on a preliminary version of this guide, I had stressed this exact problem, explaining that the real issue was author control over usage, not copyright ownership per se. I don’t know if I was the only one to do so, but nothing was changed in the final version. This is the kind of situation that makes me believe that the issue is all but well understood.

Marc Couture

De : goal-bounces at eprints.org [mailto:goal-bounces at eprints.org] De la part de Peter Murray-Rust
Envoyé : 24 mai 2016 04:38
À : Global Open Access List (Successor of AmSci)
Objet : Re: [GOAL] CC-BY with copyright transfer

I agree with Heather, this is unclear and needs checking. There is a difference between the author of a work and the owner. I would agree that it appears to be a deceptive practice. I have had similar problems "arguing" with Elsevier about text-and-datamining "licences" where the licences apparently give rights to Elsevier. 

I will try to get an informal opinion.

On Fri, May 20, 2016 at 6:18 PM, Heather Morrison <Heather.Morrison at uottawa.ca> wrote:

Elsevier's copyright page provides a very clear example of copyright transfer combined with CC licenses. Elsevier is not alone in this practice; I see this quite frequently while looking for APCS. 

The Elsevier copyright page:

https://www.elsevier.com/about/company-information/policies/copyright

States under "for open access articles":

"Authors sign an exclusive license agreement, where authors have copyright but license exclusive rights in the article to the publisher. In this case authors have the right to share their articles in the same ways permitted to third parties..."

This language makes it very clear that when Elsevier applies CC licenses, Elsevier (or one of its partners)  is the Licensor or copyright holder, even when there is a copyright statement indicating the author holds copyright.

I argue that this is a deceptive practice that I call author nomination copyright.

This is important,  because CC licenses place obligations downstream for licensees, not Licensor. The copyright holder of a CC license has no obligation to continue to provide a copy of the work under the same terms in perpetuity (unless there is a separate contract).

To assess the extent of this practice one must examine journal/author contracts, not just visible indications, because even if an author is licensed CC-BY and indicates the author as copyright holder, it may actually be the publisher who owns all the rights under copyright.

best,

Heather Morrison 

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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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