The April issue of INDICARE is devoted to DRM in scientific publishing and libraries. The articles have been posted as completed and I've already blogged the most relevant to OA. But now I can blog the issue's editorial by Knud Böhle. Excerpt: 'When we posted our call for papers for this issue on "science, higher education, and libraries" to an e-mail list of librarians the immediate reply was that DRM has no business in this field at all because of its character as a space of academic freedom. Open Access would be the appropriate answer (cf. INETBIB 2005). The four thematic articles we present in this special issue all recognize the special status of this field, however the authors come to a rather different conclusion about the role of DRM in there. In other words, sympathy for the rights of creators and cultural institutions like libraries makes them advocate prudently for a cautious use of DRM systems in these areas. The use of DRM technology in this field need not necessarily be a fall from grace of mankind. First it seems to be often overlooked that the expression of rights is not per se the enforcement of rights, and that well received approaches like Creative Commons are in first place this: a transparent expression of rights. Therefore, talking about CC is also talking about DRM. Second, what DRM technology is and what it is not depends. For example, safeguarding integrity and authenticity of documents is safeguarding rights of creators and consumers. Technologies guaranteeing integrity and authenticity such as digital signatures or watermarks are in this sense contingent. A one man's security technology is another man's DRM technology. Third, in some cases DRM systems may indeed be a solution to leverage fair use exemptions. In the library context these include the right to lend, the right to preserve, the right to supply documents to third parties, the right to share.'
Posted by
Peter Suber at 5/01/2005 09:39:00 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.
