Memorial University of Newfoundland is planning to digitize the works in its library and put them on the web for free online access. When the works are under copyright, it will proceed only with the copyright holder's consent. Canadian authors are protesting anyway. Excerpt from a CBC News story yesterday:
Newfoundland and Labrador writers are fighting a plan to make their work available on the internet for free. Memorial University wants to make much of its library holdings available to the public over the web. However, the association that represents writers in Newfoundland and Labrador says the program could make it harder for its members to sell books. "It's very simple. If you make a work you own it and you should be paid – you should be remunerated for it," said Allison Dyer, president of the Writers' Alliance of Newfoundland and Labrador. Memorial University says the idea behind the project is to make Newfoundland's culture and heritage freely available to everyone. Richard Ellis, Memorial's university librarian, says the university will not post anything on the web without first negotiating for permission. "It ought not to interfere with the livelihood of those people who make a living from publishing whether it be the publishers or the authors," Ellis said. The plan, Ellis noted, is only in preliminary stages. Memorial hopes to begin by posting the library's Newfoundland Studies collection.
Comment. There has to be more to this controversy than we've heard so far. Do the authors understand that the university will respect the decisions of copyright holders? Do they believe the university is making this assurance in bad faith? Have they transferred copyright to publishers and fear that publishers will consent against author wishes? Are they trying to block OA to books in the public domain on a theory that copyright is eternal? I'll post more as I learn more.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 1/11/2006 07:11:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
