Out of interest, Bangor is just considering a new IPR
agreement with staff by which it does largely retain
copyright -- although there is concern that a refusal to
allow staff to give copyright to journal publishers might
result in their being able to get nothing published! The
University is waiving the rights to something like the
first 2,000 pounds of royalties.
However, while this might solve some problems, it creates
others. Easy for the university to know what it holds the
copyright of for its own internal use; but if I as a
librarian (or researcher) want to copy or quote extensively
from copyright material, do I have to trace the author's
career to find out where the copyright resides?
And there is still the vexed question of "in work time",
the only claim universities have to the copyright of the
work of their staff. Our academic staff have no set hours;
if our Professor of Welsh sits at his desk and writes a
poem during the day, and does the Departmental
Administration at home until 3 am, does the University have
a right -- moral or legal -- to the copyright in his poem?
If he confines his scholarly writing to the hours of 6 pm
to midnight (as I did when I wrote a book on library
automation), is that work morally or legally the
University's?
Think before you say yes: I would have to have to ask all
my staf to change their car insurance because any journey
at any time might be considered to be "in the course of
their employment"!
Ian
On Mon, 23 Sep 1996 09:57:09 GMT "Prof. Charles Oppenheim"
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Chris Pegler's point about "the material should be owned by the
> University anyway" is interesting. I have argued for some years that
> at the very least HEIs should look into this issue, precisely because
> it gives them an opportunity to reduce their costs. I gave a
> presentation to CVCP urging them to consider this matter more than a
> year ago. The result? Zilch.
----------------------
Ian Lovecy
Cyfarwyddwr / Director
Gwasanaethau Gwybodaeth / Information Services
Prifysgol Cymru, Bangor / University of Wales, Bangor
Ffordd Sackville
Bangor
Gwynedd LL57 1LD
Ffon / Tel: 01248 382960
Ffacs / Fax: 01248 383826
Post-e / e-mail: [log in to unmask]
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