<div dir="ltr"><span style="font-size:12.8px">While the language may be confusing, the US Copyright Act makes it clear that </span><div style="font-size:12.8px">an exclusive license <i>is</i> a transfer of copyright. </div><div style="font-size:12.8px"><br></div><div style="font-size:12.8px">17 USC 101: <b>A “transfer of copyright ownership” is an assignment,</b> mortgage, </div><div style="font-size:12.8px"><b>exclusive license, </b>or any other conveyance, alienation, or hypothecation of a </div><div style="font-size:12.8px">copyright or of any of the exclusive rights comprised in a copyright, whether or </div><div style="font-size:12.8px">not it is limited in time or place of effect, <b>but not including a nonexclusive license.</b></div><div style="font-size:12.8px"><br></div><div style="font-size:12.8px">This line in Elsevier's agreement creates this confusion: "<span style="font-size:12.8px">Authors sign an exclusive </span></div><span class="im" style="font-size:12.8px"><div><span style="font-size:12.8px">license agreement, where authors have copyright </span><span style="font-size:12.8px">but license exclusive rights in the </span></div><div><span style="font-size:12.8px">article to the publisher. In this case authors have the </span><span style="font-size:12.8px">right to share their articles in the </span></div><div><span style="font-size:12.8px">same ways permitted to third parties..."</span></div><div><br></div></span><div style="font-size:12.8px">If <i>all</i> rights are exclusively assigned, then the author is <i>not </i>the copyright holder. </div><div style="font-size:12.8px">The copyright may be registered in their name, but they are not the copyright holder. </div><div style="font-size:12.8px">If <i>some</i> rights are exclusively assigned, then the author <i>and </i>the publisher are each </div><div style="font-size:12.8px">copyright holders of whatever rights were allocated in the contract. </div><div style="font-size:12.8px"><br></div><div style="font-size:12.8px">As to the SPARC "How open is it" scale, Elsevier might try to argue that it should </div><div style="font-size:12.8px">get a 4 out of 5 because the author "owns" the copyright, but by plain text of the </div><div style="font-size:12.8px">statute, it does not. So they are properly placed in the middle of the "Copyrights" </div><div style="font-size:12.8px">scale: "Publisher holds copyright, with some allowances for author and reader </div><div style="font-size:12.8px">reuse of published version"</div><div style="font-size:12.8px"><br></div><div style="font-size:12.8px"><div>Elsevier is not alone in this practice, by the way; it's unfortunately common. And </div><div>it's very confusing to authors and editors alike. Heather Morrison is correct to call </div><div>out as confusing and problematic Elsevier's practice of requiring authors to </div><div>transfer their copyright to be licensed CC by Elsevier. I'd also like to call out as </div><div>deceptive this practice of telling authors they are the "copyright holders" when, </div><div>by the terms of their contract and the statute, <i>they are not</i>. </div></div><div style="font-size:12.8px"><br></div><div style="font-size:12.8px">Laura Quilter</div><div class="gmail_extra"><br clear="all"><div><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr">~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<br>Laura Markstein Quilter / <a href="mailto:lquilter@lquilter.net" target="_blank">lquilter@lquilter.net</a><br>Attorney, Geek, Militant Librarian, Teacher<div><br></div></div></div></div>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 11:49 AM, Couture Marc <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:marc.couture@teluq.ca" target="_blank">marc.couture@teluq.ca</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d">Hi all,<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d">I also agree that this is an important, but badly treated/understood issue.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d">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.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"><a href="http://sparcopen.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/hoii_guide_rev4_web.pdf" target="_blank">http://sparcopen.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/hoii_guide_rev4_web.pdf</a>
<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d">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.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d">Marc Couture<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a name="m_-3192995993024328643__MailEndCompose"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">De :</span></b><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""> <a href="mailto:goal-bounces@eprints.org" target="_blank">goal-bounces@eprints.org</a> [mailto:<a href="mailto:goal-bounces@eprints.org" target="_blank">goal-bounces@eprints.org</a>]
<b>De la part de</b> Peter Murray-Rust<br>
<b>Envoyé :</b> 24 mai 2016 </span><span lang="FR" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">04:38<br>
<b>À :</b> Global Open Access List (Successor of AmSci)<br>
<b>Objet :</b> Re: [GOAL] CC-BY with copyright transfer<u></u><u></u></span></p><div><div class="h5">
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt">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.
<br>
<br>
I will try to get an informal opinion.<u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">On Fri, May 20, 2016 at 6:18 PM, Heather Morrison <<a href="mailto:Heather.Morrison@uottawa.ca" target="_blank">Heather.Morrison@uottawa.ca</a>> wrote:<u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">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. <u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">The Elsevier copyright page:<u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.elsevier.com/about/company-information/policies/copyright" target="_blank">https://www.elsevier.com/about/company-information/policies/copyright</a><u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">States under "for open access articles":<u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">"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..."<u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">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.<u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">I argue that this is a deceptive practice that I call author nomination copyright.<u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">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).<u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">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.<u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">best,<u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Heather Morrison <u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt"><br>
_______________________________________________<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><br>
<br clear="all">
<br>
-- <u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Peter Murray-Rust<br>
Reader in Molecular Informatics<br>
Unilever Centre, Dep. Of Chemistry<br>
University of Cambridge<br>
CB2 1EW, UK<br>
<a href="tel:%2B44-1223-763069" value="+441223763069" target="_blank">+44-1223-763069</a><u></u><u></u></p>
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<br></blockquote></div><br></div></div>