International intellectual property agreements allow limitations and exceptions to be adopted in national copyright laws. Here are some tips for developing countries when reviewing their copyright laws:
... Do not include protection for non-original databases. (It had little or no positive impact for rightsholders in the EU and created problems for users)". Original databases are protected by copyright like any original work. ...
Promote Open Access, Open Source Software & Open Licensing (e.g. Creative Commons, etc.)
Create and populate Open Access Institutional Repositories/Research Archives to showcase African research.
Encourage authors not to sign over all their rights to publishers – encourage them to retain rights to enable them to place their works in open access institutional repositories, on personal blogs or to include in teaching materials. Encourage them to make use of an Author’s Addendum. ...
Posted by
Gavin Baker at 9/16/2009 08:48:00 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.
