Is Europe Falling Behind in Data Mining? Copyright’s Impact on Data Mining in Academic Research

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“This empirical paper discusses how copyright affects data mining (DM) by academic researchers. Based on bibliometric data, we show that where DM for academic research requires the express consent of rights holders: (1) DM makes up a significantly lower share of total research output; and (2) stronger rule-of-law is associated with less DM research. To our knowledge, this is the first time that an empirical study bears out a significant negative association between copyright protection and innovation.”

URL : http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2608513

E-books: Histories, trajectories, futures

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“This essay traces the historical trajectory of e-books in the U.S. and imagines their possible futures. Legal, economic, and technical developments that led to contemporary e-books reveal a tension between commercial and non-commercial programming. Commercial e-book designs control end uses, reduce production and distribution costs, stimulate consumption, and monitor user behaviors; however, alternative producers and users on the periphery continue to challenge these centralizing tendencies.”

URL : http://dx.doi.org/10.5210/fm.v20i6.5641

Open Access: Ein Lackmustest (Open Access: A Litmus Test)

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German Abstract: “Open Access ist ein interessanter Policy Bereich, nicht nur weil er die Produktionsbedingungen der öffentlichen Forschung selbst betrifft, sondern auch weil er möglicherweise einer verbreiteten Beobachtung in der Urheberrechtsforschung widerspricht. Bestimmend für die allgemeine Erzählung des Urheberrechts ist die Expansionsannahme. Demnach ist die Entwicklung der Ausschlussrechte durch eine kontinuierliche und lineare Expansion gekennzeichnet. Open Access Initiativen mobilisieren dagegen für eine Umkehrung dieses Trends. Sie zielen auf akademische Standards, die einen erlaubnisfreien Zugang zu und eine Nachnutzung von öffentlich finanzierten Forschungsergebnissen verbindlich festlegen.
Dieser Artikel gibt einen breiten Überblick über die verschiedenen Ursprünge, die Operationalisierungs- und Institutionalisierungsformen von Open Access. Er beginnt mit einem kurzen Abriss über die Entstehung und Formierung des Marktes für akademische Zeitschriften, dem bis heute mächtigsten Gegner der Open Access Bewegung; und er schließt mit einer exemplarischen Darstellung der neueren Policies in Großbritannien, im Hinblick auf Open Access derzeit eines der interessantesten Länder. Die Britische Politikentwicklung zeigt zunächst, dass der Teufel tatsächlich in den Implementationsdetails steckt. Dies betrifft nicht nur die Durchsetzung von Open Access Standards, sondern auch die Allokation von Rechten. Darüber hinaus lässt sich von diesem Beispiel lernen, wie wichtig die politische Akteurskonstellation für die Ausgestaltung von Open Access Regeln ist, und damit zugleich für die künftige Bedeutung von Ausschlussrechten in der Zirkulation von öffentlicher Forschung.”

English Abstract: “Open Access is an interesting policy domain, not only because it concerns the modes of production of academic knowledge, but also because it may contradict a common observation of copyright research. While the great copyright narrative assumes that intellectual property rights expand in a continuous and linear fashion, Open Access policies strive to achieve the opposite; to wit, academic standards, which allow a permission-free access and a re-use of publicly funded research results.
This article aims to provide a broad overview of the diverse origins, the operationalization and institutionalization of Open Access policies. It starts with the emergence and formation of the market for academic journals, the most powerful counterpart of the Open Access movement, and it concludes with recent Open Access policies in the UK, one of the most interesting countries in this context because it illustrates that the devil is in the implementation details. The example of the UK not only offers lessons on how Open Access standards can be enforced but, more importantly so, on the political constellations that determine the future fate of Open Access, including that of the role of property rights for the circulation of academic knowledge.”

URL : http://ssrn.com/abstract=2515844

Libre accès à la recherche scientifique et droit d’auteur : le cas des archives ouvertes

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Le droit d’auteur est incontournable lorsque l’on évoque l’open access, que ce soit pour organiser l’accès aux publications scientifiques ou permettre leur exploitation. Pourtant, les dispositifs mis en place pour promouvoir l’open access ne donnent pas toujours la même place au droit d’auteur.

Si la recherche d’efficacité peut justifier l’adoption de solutions plus ou moins contraignantes pour les scientifiques, il est également envisageable de responsabiliser les chercheurs en leur donnant les moyens de partager leurs œuvres et d’en permettre l’utilisation.

URL : http://icoa2014.sciencesconf.org/35113

The Evolution of Publishing Agreements at the University of Michigan Library

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“Taking as an example an open-access journal with a single editor, this article discusses the various configurations of rights agreements used by the University of Michigan Library throughout the evolution of its publishing operation, the advantages of the various models, and the reasons for moving from one to another.”

URL : The Evolution of Publishing Agreements at the University of Michigan Library

DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.7710/2162-3309.1175

 

Enclosing the public domain: The restriction of public domain books in a digital environment

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“This paper explores restrictions that are being applied to New Zealand public domain books once they have been digitized and hosted online. The study assesses access and usage restrictions within six online repositories, using a sample of 100 pre–1890 New Zealand heritage books. The findings indicate that new restrictions are being applied to works no longer protected by copyright. Out of the 50 titles that had been digitized, only three were hosted by repositories that do not restrict any type of subsequent use. Furthermore, 48 percent (24) were subject to access restrictions. Copyright law’s delicate balance between public and private interests is being eroded by the prevalence of online terms and conditions, which invoke the doctrine of contract law in an attempt to restrict the public domain and opt–out of limitations upon copyright. Furthermore, ambiguity surrounding the copyright status of some books is encouraging digitizers to adopt restrictive access policies, even when a work is highly likely to be in the public domain. Unless clear rules of online curatorship are articulated within legislation, previously liberated public domain works are at risk of being restricted by online intermediaries.”

URL : http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/4975

Open exchange of scientific knowledge and European copyright: The case of biodiversity information

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Background. The 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development is helping the European to prepare for an integrative system for intelligent management of biodiversity knowledge. The infrastructure that is envisaged and that will be further developed within the Programme “Horizon 2020” aims to provide open and free access to taxonomic information to anyone with a requirement for biodiversity data, without the need for individual consent of other persons or institutions. Open and free access to information will foster the re-use and improve the quality of data, will accelerate research, and will promote new types of research. Progress towards the goal of free and open access to content is hampered by numerous technical, economic, sociological, legal, and other factors. The present article addresses barriers to the open exchange of biodiversity knowledge that arise from European laws, in particular European legislation on copyright and database protection rights.

We present a legal point of view as to what will be needed to bring distributed information together and facilitate its re-use by data mining, integration into semantic knowledge systems, and similar techniques. We address exceptions and limitations of copyright or database protection within Europe, and we point to the importance of data use agreements. We illustrate how exceptions and limitations have been transformed into national legislations within some European states to create inconsistencies that impede access to biodiversity information.

Conclusions. The legal situation within the EU is unsatisfactory because there are inconsistencies among states that hamper the deployment of an open biodiversity knowledge management system. Scientists within the EU who work with copyright protected works or with protected databases have to be aware of regulations that vary from country to country. This is a major stumbling block to international collaboration and is an impediment to the open exchange of biodiversity knowledge. Such differences should be removed by unifying exceptions and limitations for research purposes in a binding, Europe-wide regulation.”

URL : Open exchange of scientific knowledge and European copyright

Alternative URL : http://www.pensoft.net/journals/zookeys/article/7717/abstract/open-exchange-of-scientific-knowledge-and-european-copyright-the-case-of-biodiversity-information