Re: transfer of c. in conference proceedings

On July 30, 1998, Dan L. Burk <burkdanl[_at_]shu.edu> wrote:
>
> On 07/28/98, Angela Putney <aputney[_at_]aip.org> wrote:
> >
> > On 07/27/98, Stephen Childe <s.childe[_at_]plymouth.ac.uk> wrote:
> > >
> > > It is becoming increasingly common for the organisers of academic
> > > conferences to insist on the authors of submitted papers signing a
> > > form to transfer their copyright to the organiser or the organising
> > > institution or publisher.
> >
> [snip]
> >
> > In Physics and Astronomy conference proceedings, the publishers (that
> > I am aware of) require a transfer of copyright agreement. They claim
> > they need this in order to be able to properly publish and distribute
> > the proceedings (they need some form of rights to publish it in any
> > case).
>
> Well, yes, but the agreement need only tranfer a non-exclusive right
> to publish the paper. In fact, you might be able to infer such a
> right from the fact that the author presented the paper at the
> conference, without a written agreement. This doesn't necessitate
> transfer of all rights.
>
> > If there are any infringements, they can fight for the author.
>
> With statutory damages and attorney's fees, the author can probably
> fight for herself. The real value here may be in detecting, rather than
> enforcing, the copyright -- a publisher working in the subject matter
> area may be more likely to detect infringements than the author would
> be. I emphasize *may.*
>
> > They can also deal with requests for re-printing (the publisher is
> > usually easier to find years later than the author).
>
> This is also a dubious assumption. I have watched several smaller
> scientific publishing houses go out of business, which makes the
> copyright holder *really* hard to find.
>
> > They can also re-print the proceedings if they have copyright (I could
> > imagine a one-time use consent to publish being offered which would
> > disallow this).
>
> This could also be dealt with by a more limited rights transfer, even a
> non-exclusive rights transfer.
>
> > (This is what I am told at least).
>
> I think you (like the rest of us) have been told some convenient
> justifications by publishers.
>
> I suspect the real reason is that conference proceedings don't tend to
> sell very many copies, so that the publisher feels it needs the ability
> to exploit the work in ancillary or secondary markets in order to make
> a profit. Besides being the real reason, this might actually be a
> persuasive reason if the publisher would admit it.

I would also suggest that academics and others exclude electronic rights from any license; otherwise, papers may appear on various Web sites without approval of the author.

Lesley Harris
<lesley[_at_]copyrightlaws.com> Received on Thu Jul 30 1998 - 12:46:42 GMT