[okfn-discuss] The role of open licensing in open science

Thu Jan 22 02:31:47 UTC 2009

On Wed, Jan 21, 2009 at 10:49:45PM +0000, Jonathan Gray wrote:
> An interesting blog post from Michael Nielsen!
> 
> J.
> 
> ---
> 
> # The role of open licensing in open science
> # http://michaelnielsen.org/blog/?p=540
> 
> That's not to say there isn't a legal issue here. But it's a legal
> issue for publishers, not individual scientists. Many journal
> publishers have business models which are vulnerable to systematic
> large-scale attempts to duplicate their content. Someone could, for
> example, set up a "Pirate Bay" for scientific journal articles, making
> the world's scientific articles freely available. That's something
> those journals have to worry about, for legitimate short-term business
> reasons, and copyright law provides them with some form of protection
> and redress.
> 
> My own opinion is that over the long run, it's likely that the
> publishers will move to open access business models, and that will be
> a good thing for open science. I might be wrong about that; I can
> imagine a world in which that doesn't happen, yet certain varieties of
> open science still flourish. Regardless of what you think about the
> future of journals, the larger point is that the legal issues around
> openness are only a small part of a much larger set of issues, issues
> which are mostly cultural. The key to moving to a more open scientific
> system is changing scientist's hearts and minds about the value and
> desirability of more openly sharing information, not reforming the
> legal rights under which they publish content.

Good timing! 

I'm just in a conversation with an accademic publisher who is asking
that I sign a contract which would allow me to republish the article
in one other a book at a later date but not to place a copy online for
public access. (See what happens when you read small print!)

I'm unhappy with limiting access to the article and I've tried
suggesting all different kinds of licensing - everything fom straight
copyright to a public domain dedication, but as suggested above the
issue is the economic one of the publishers business model. They don't
 feel they'll be able to charge for something available online for
free.

In the end I don't think I'll be able to resolve this so won't end up
publishing with them which is a pity.

Has anyone had similar experience or advice to give on situations like
this?

cheers

/julian