1. Are there special rights for authors in science and education in your copyright regulation?
There are no rights for the authors, but rights to exploit commercially for the publishers, called ‘copyright for authors’. In Germany the ‘Urheberrechtsgesetz’ has already been amended twice (Korb 1 and Korb 2 zur Anpassung des Gesetzes). The few ‘exceptions’ which e.g. allow users at Universities to use small parts of published material in a closed circle group of persons (e.g. a seminar) have not been withdrawn for now. The German Coalition Coalition for Action “Copyright for Education and Research” is calling for a third amendment to address specifically the needs of science and scientists. The coalition comprises all major Science Organisations in Germany, 359 scientific institutions, learned societies and federations, as well as 6.990 individual personalities of Science....
4. To what extent are technical protection means (digital rights management) protected in your copyright regulation and which consequences do these technical protection means have for science and education?
Some libraries start to use DRM and send the measurements of usage to the publishers. Consequence: this is catastrophic for free, easy, effective usage of knowledge and thus hampers the competition in science. And it counteracts the right of privacy and independence of individual research actions.
5. Are there any norms in your copyright regulation or any suggestions or plans in your parliament or government which will support open access publishing in science and education?
The government and the Parliament (with the exception of the Green Party) are predominantly against OA, their strategy is to support the toll-access publishing with the argument to secure the presently employed workforce and thus the past toll-access business model.
Instead, the long term securing of jobs is most effectively done by supporting business models that fit the needs of researchers, thus OA. Instead of supporting science, the government is presently subsidizing a crippled industry based on the toll access business model, which was adapted to the needs of the past paper age.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 11/11/2008 11:58:00 AM.
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.
