http://library.duke.edu/blogs/scholcomm Duke's source for advice and information about copyright and publication issues Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:59:11 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en It seems like such a simple point.  And the rhetoric of authors’ entitlement to the fruits of their labors has always been prominent in copyright debates, although it was usually on the lips of printers and publishers whose real concerns were much different.  Two very different articles have once again ... http://library.duke.edu/blogs/scholcomm/2009/11/04/copyright-should-be-an-author%e2%80%99s-right-part-1/ It is getting both monotonous and annoying to write repeatedly about badly reasoned court decisions in the area of copyright.  Unfortunately, when they directly impact higher education, we cannot ignore these pernicious errors by our federal courts. Earlier this month, a district court in Michigan handed down such a decision in ... http://library.duke.edu/blogs/scholcomm/2009/10/29/through-the-copyright-looking-glass/ Jon Kuniholm may not have been an obvious choice for an Open Access Week speaker at Duke, but as the final participant in a panel on global access to health information yesterday, he made a profound impression.  The panel, called "Open Access, Local Action," was all very interesting to the ... http://library.duke.edu/blogs/scholcomm/2009/10/24/open-access-for-hardware/ There has been some really good attention paid recently to the issue of how our linguist choices really frame the debates about copyright law and, often, prejudge them.  In his new book, William Patry (who will be speaking at Duke Law School on October 22) devotes quite a bit of ... http://library.duke.edu/blogs/scholcomm/2009/10/18/technological-neutrality-as-a-rhetorical-strategy/ No, the title, a paraphrase of a famous remark by Justice Potter Stewart, does not refer, in this instance, to pornography, but to non-commercial uses of copyrighted works. One of the persistent criticisms -- or perhaps reservations is the correct word -- about the Creative Commons licensing scheme has been that ... http://library.duke.edu/blogs/scholcomm/2009/10/13/i-cant-define/ This article from the Guardian UK about how "Google Books deal forces us to deal with copyright" had me nodding in agreement, right up until its last few paragraphs.  Like author Nick Harkaway, I am cautiously relieved by the intervention from the Department of Justice that has forced a postponement ... http://library.duke.edu/blogs/scholcomm/2009/10/07/falling-down-before-the-finish/ Some copyright cases just don't grab one's attention, and I have to admit that I saw reports of the decision in Omega v. Costco several times before the potential impact on academic libraries began to sink in.  The case involves chapter 6 of the Copyright Act, referred to as the ... http://library.duke.edu/blogs/scholcomm/2009/10/01/manufacturing-controversy/ A recent conversation on an e-mail list for theological librarians (the branch of academic librarianship in which I began my own professional career) has lead me to reflect on exactly what problem it is that open access is designed to solve. The exchange involved a journal called “Studies in Religion,” which ... http://library.duke.edu/blogs/scholcomm/2009/09/27/what-problem-can-open-access-solve/ The hearings last week before the House Judiciary Committee about the proposed settlement in the copyright infringement lawsuit over the Google Books project once again showed the disparate opinions that the proposed settlement has generated.  There is a NY Times report on the hearings here. One of the most interesting ... http://library.duke.edu/blogs/scholcomm/2009/09/18/not-really-a-settlement-at-all/ The World Economic Forum recently published its 2009 Global Competitiveness Report, and I was struck by one particular statistic, as well as the conclusion drawn from it by the US Chamber of Commerce.  One of the many statistical tables in the WEF report ranks the perceived strength of national protection ... http://library.duke.edu/blogs/scholcomm/2009/09/15/the-joy-of-statistics/