Chamber Four

Many of the recent entries in the SEPW discuss Open Access, so I’ve decided to share just one here, as well some nice pieces on DRM and author rights. Pieces in academic journals can be a bit dry, but the information they contain is often both fresh and interesting, so I use this post to sieve through some of the more accessible (and reader-pertinent) articles each month. You can read my previous installment of SEPW highlights, which focused on Open Access and digital archiving, here.

First we have “Fair to Whom?”, by Heather Joseph. This article discusses a bill in Congress that could prove very important to public access, at least on the academic side of things. It is also sad evidence of lobbyist effect in Washington.

H.R. 801 actually packs quite a potential wallop and has widespread implications. It is designed to amend current U.S. copyright law, and carves out a subclass of copyrighted works—specifically, those works that are the result of taxpayer funding—and makes it illegal for the government to require that these works be made freely available to taxpayers as a condition of the federal support researchers receive.

Seems like they want the taxpayers to foot the bill but concede rights to access, which doesn’t sound all that fair to me. Looks like another case of the lawyer and the CEO walking on the reader and scholar.

Next is an excellent study on the implications of DRM in developing countries. Especially nice about this article is that it seconds as a quick DRM 101 primer, giving a breakdown of the ins and outs of DRM, explaining what it is and how it works. The article also asks some intriguing questions about the implications of DRM, for instance, how might digital restrictions installed by one one hand work under the rights and laws established by the other:

The library community in South Africa needs to challenge the  Department of Communication which administers this [Electronic Communications and Transactions] Act, since this Act, without appropriate limitations and exceptions, could very well be in contravention of the South African Constitution or other laws which mandate access to the public.

“Digital Rights Management and Access to Information: A Developing Country’s Perspective”, by Denise Rosemary Nicholson (links to the pdf).

Finally, before a set of further links, “Publishers Relax Author Rights Agreements”, by Sian Harris. Apparently scholarly publications are leaning away from requiring copyright transfer from authors and more toward leasing publishing licenses. However the restrictions they place on them are varied and a bit stiff. Reminds me how glad I am not to be a copyright lawyer, as that stuff is tricky to wrap my head around.

Unfortunately, all the other articles from the June update that I wanted to share are not free to access. However, if you have journal access via a library (or you’re willing to pony up for an article), these might be of interest:

“What Will Become of Reference in Academic and Public Libraries?”, by Jack O’Gorman and Barry Trott

“Putting the Public in Public Domain: The Public Library’s Role in the Conceptualization of Public Domain”, by Tamara Sheppard

“Managing Digital Information Resources in Africa: Preserving the Integrity of Scholarship”, by Christine Wamunyima Kanyengo

“Rising to the Challenge, a Look at the Role of Public Libraries in Times of Recession”, by Christine Rooney-Browne