Open Access News

News from the open access movement


Saturday, February 03, 2007

OA and university ownership of faculty research

Robert C. Denicola, Copyright and Open Access: Reconsidering University Ownership of Faculty Research, Nebraska Law Review, 85 (2006) pp. 351ff.  (Thanks to Current copyright literature.)  The article is not online, at least so far, and the link only points to a scan of the first page.

Update. Thanks to Carol Hutchins I can provide this excerpt from Denicola's conclusion:

It is unrealistic to expect authors to solve the problem by bargaining harder with publishers over copyrights. The benefits of retaining copyright are too abstract to prompt individual authors to risk a good placement, and the bargaining leverage in any event is with the publishers. However, universities could claim what they probably already own by invoking their rights under the work-made-for-hire doctrine, and they could do it in a manner that poses no threat to the interests of their faculty. Armed with a right to authorize electronic access to the entire research output of their faculties, universities could facilitate the development of comprehensive open-access repositories, or at least extract significant concessions from publishers.