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Chance for OA to copyrighted German literature published before 1995 Klaus Graf, Urheberrechtsnovelle - Implikationen für die Wissenschaft, H-Soz-u-Kult, August 29, 2007. Read the German or Google’s English. In short: German copyright law will change in late 2007 or early 2008, and authors will have one year to decide whether they want to own the exclusive electronic rights to their works published in Germany before 1995, or transfer the rights to their publishers. If authors choose to keep the electronic rights, and tell their publishers within a year, then by law they will own those rights and may therefore authorize OA for those works. If they don’t, then the rights will vest in the publisher. Graf includes a sample letter to send to publishers to deny them electronic publishing rights. The new rules apply to authors of any nationality who published with a German publisher before 1995. Comments.
Update (11/13/07). Klaus has updated his appeal and linked to some others who join him in making it. |