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“Open Access journal publishing has created a number of entirely new copyright models. These copyright models stand in contrast to the model used by traditional academic journals in which the copyright is effectively transferred from the author to the journal publisher, with only minor variations in practice. The emergence of new models is providing a wide range of choices for authors wishing to publish their work, and it is important to have some sense from academic authors as to the advantages and disadvantages of these new models.

“Our survey asked academic authors to express their views on the usefulness of present-day copyright policies for scholarly communication. In general terms, the survey shows that authors publishing in Open Access journals appear to be no longer satisfied with assigning copyrights to publishers. One of the key elements is authors’ interest in being read and cited, and thus in maximising the free availability of their output. A creator’s right to let his or her work to be used in order to advance science and culture is seen as very important, and the survey therefore emphasises that the views of authors should be taken into account when determining copyright models.

“The purpose of this article is to stimulate libraries and academic institutions to take the authors’ views into account and to represent the authors’ interests along with their own in the aforementioned copyright debate in the scholarly communication system.

Esther Hoorn and Maurits van der Graaf. Copyright Issues in Open Access Research Journals: The Authors’ Perspective. D-Lib Magazine. February 2006.

See also:

Julie Cohen. The Place of the User in Copyright Law. Fordham Law Review (via Social Science Research Network). 2005.

CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.

“Legislation is being considered in California that would see the state’s educational technology grant program tethered to requirements for teaching copyright law to students. Introduced nearly a year ago, AB 307 would amend section 51871.5 of the Californian Education Code to include new preconditions for public schools applying for funding under the oversight of the California Technology Assistance Project. The project is designed to provide a network of technical assistance to schools and their districts in implementing education technology as determined by the Californian State Board of Education.

“Schools that wish to apply for grants will need to demonstrate that they have a plan to educate their students in three areas: the ‘ethical behavior in regards to the use of information technology,’ ‘the concept, purpose, and significance of a copyright,’ and ‘the implications of illegal peer-to-peer network file sharing.'”

“The bill is the brainchild of California Assemblyman Ed Chavez. Assemblyman Chavez’s office also indicated that the MPAA has formally supported the bill, and the RIAA is also a backer.”

Ars Technica. California Tying Education Tech Grants to Copyright Education. Feb. 15, 2006.

CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.

“It’s a modern dilemma: That iPod you got last year seems so lame now that a newer version is out. If you’re the type that needs to switch up MP3 players like you change sneakers, one of the easiest ways to unload the devices is by selling them on Web.

“But given all the lawsuits over illegally traded music, you might ask yourself, ‘Is it legal to sell a device loaded with your signature mix of tunes?'”

“The Recording Industry Association of America — the lobbying group behind the thousands of lawsuits over unauthorized sharing and downloading of songs — says the answer is definitely no. ‘Selling an iPod preloaded with music is no different than selling a DVD onto which you have burned your entire music collection,’ the RIAA said in a statement. ‘Either act is a clear violation of U.S. copyright law. The RIAA is monitoring this means of infringement. In short: seller beware.'”

Gil Kaufman. Thinking About Selling Your Used Ipod? Not So Fast, Says RIAA. MTV News. Feb. 9, 2006.

See also:

Fred Reed. Music Industry Souring on IPod. Washington Times. Feb. 18, 2006.

CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.

“Cyberspace continues to present fascinating and novel intellectual property issues. What follows is our attempt at identifying some of the more significant ‘Cyberspace Intellectual Property’ decisions of 2005. Once again, it was quite a year, with the Supreme Court’s decision in the Grokster case heading the list.

“Cyberspace intellectual property law is maturing, as evidenced by the fact that among our top ten cases are one U.S. Supreme Court and five U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals cases. And we are also seeing the courts struggling with the boundaries of trademark law, as they recognize that not every use of someone else’s trademark in Cyberspace provides a basis for an infringement claim.

“Here are our ‘top ten’ cases (thirteen, actually), followed by other cases which we felt are significant enough to mention. This list is not meant to be exhaustive, nor are the cases presented in any particular order of importance.”

John Ottovani and Eric Goldman. Top Cyberspace IP Cases of 2005. Technology & Marketing Law Blog. Feb. 21, 2006.

CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.

A U.S. judge has scolded Research In Motion Ltd. for refusing to concede defeat in its long-running patent feud over the BlackBerry — but his decision to give the Waterloo, Ont., company one last chance to settle its dispute also sent RIM’s stock higher.

RIM shares shot up over $90 yesterday before closing at $84.99, up 6.2 per cent on the Toronto Stock Exchange, after U.S. District Court Judge James Spencer postponed a decision to shut down more than three million BlackBerrys across the United States. The stock had lost nearly 20 per cent of its value Thursday amid concerns Judge Spencer would slap an injunction on the Canadian tech company.

The delayed decision appears to be part of a last-ditch effort by Judge Spencer to coax RIM and its rival, patent holding company NTP Inc., into a deal.

Barrie McKenna and Paul Waldie. Judge Gives RIM One Last Chance. Globeandmail.com. Feb. 25, 2006.

See also:

Barrie McKenna. Judge James Spencer. Globeandmail.com. Feb. 23, 2006.

CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.

Thank You to Our Subscribers

We have had quite a few new e-mail subscribers to CopyCense since the beginning of the month, and our core readers (both e-mail and RSS) have continued to support the publication by reading our content daily. Unfortunately, I have not yet configured a way to send the staff’s graces automatically upon registration. Therefore, I will do so now.

On behalf of the contributors and our editorial staff, thank you for subscribing to and reading CopyCense. Please continue to support this publication by continuing to read it, and referring it to a colleague or friend.

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K. Matthew Dames

CopyCense

CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.

“Creative Commons has taken over the world of online publishing, in two years generating over 20 million linkbacks to the Creative Commons license pages. But so far it’s been pretty much a pointless exercise, for all the linkbacks and creative commons buttons out there, a miniscule fraction of the additional rights offered by the Creative Commons licenses are actually being put to use.

“The problem is that Creative Commons licenses have been custom tailored to appeal to the random whims of publishers with no regard for consumers of the commons content. If you read Creative Commons material, it carefully emphasizes that Creative Commons is about creating tools for publishers, not creating free content for people to re-use. In this sense, ‘Creative Commons’ is a misnomer, for the definition of a ‘Commons’ is ‘mutual good, shared by more than one,’ not ‘an entanglement of vaguely defined rights and restrictions.'”

Alex Bosworth’s Weblog. Creative Commons Is Broken. Source Labs. Feb. 21, 2006.

See also:

Lawrence Liang. A Guide To Open Content Licences. December 2004.

CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.