[open-science] Licence, Ownership and Copyright in scholarly publishing

[Nick Barnes]

On Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 06:48, Peter Murray-Rust <pm286 at cam.ac.uk> wrote:
> I have (what I hope is) a clearly formulated question and I'd like
> authoritative answers. Please don't offer guesses or logical solutions.
>
> In a scholarly publication we can, in principle, identify some interested
> parties:
> * the author/s of the publication
> * the owner of the intellectual property
> * the copyright holder
> * the licensor
>
> I can imagine cases where all four are different, e.g.
> * me
> * my employer
> * someone I have transferred the copyright to
> * someone who publishes a journal
>
> I am particularly interested in who licences the publication as this is the
> legal entity that may challenge someone's use of the material. Is it always
> clear? Where it is clear is it always the publisher?

What do you mean by "intellectual property".  It's a vague term, best
avoided.  It is generally taken as an umbrella term for copyrights,
patents, and trademarks.
And, what do you mean by "licensor"?  The copyright-holder often
issues a license.  That license may convey rights to sub-licensing.
-- 
Nick Barnes, Climate Code Foundation, http://climatecode.org/