Yes, as Charles points out, the only way of doing it legally is to get
the author to give permission to a private requester. The technology
used has to allow for that, with an appropriate security mechanism to
make sure nobody else gets it.
I've never been clear whether a repository has a right to store such a
copy on a restricted basis in the first place if the publisher says it
may not, but it's often contended that this is allowed for
administrative purposes. Since repositories are demonstrably not
intended for that, and since the button is in place in such a scenario,
the intent seems to me to be to solicit requests and therefore to
redistribute. To my uninformed mind that would look like storing a copy
in breach of copyright. The response I've had in the past from Stevan
Harnad and others is, uncharacteristically I might add, that
repositories may serve purposes other than distributing content on the
web. I find it hard to credit that any court would be as simple-minded
as to swallow that argument, should the issue ever arise. It hasn't come
to court so far, so let's hope it never does. Perhaps any such case
would be unprovable anyway, but it would be nice to know the legal
position on storing a copy in a retrieval system, as one often sees the
phrase in copyright statements in published books.
Perhaps Charles has the answer to this? Clearly if one can't store a
copy, the issue of the button would never arise unless the publisher
specifically allowed a restricted-access copy to be held, rather
contrary to the purpose of their opposition to OA and presumably thus a
rare occurrence. If there are reasonable legal grounds to hold a
restricted-access copy in a repository despite the publisher's lack of
permission, then the issue evaporates.
Talat
Richard Rankin wrote:
> I may have misunderstood the thread
>
> I had read it that the eprint request would automatically email the paper without intervention from the author.
>
> Is it that the eprint request sends a message to the author to email the paper?
>
> Ricky
>
> ________________________________________
> From: Repositories discussion list [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Talat Chaudhri [[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 13 February 2009 15:32
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Fair-Use/Schmair-Use...
>
> Any transport protocol would seem fine provided that the author's active
> consent is incorporated into the process for each personal request.
> Unfortunately, HTTP doesn't work that way. I suppose the system could
> instead send a unique authentication code by email to the person who
> wanted to see it by HTTP whereas normally it would be restricted, but it
> would have to work only once in case they shared it against the author's
> wishes - so what would be the advantage over sending it by email? Unless
> of course one has an account on the repository or another linked
> service, again requiring the author's permission - but are people really
> going to use one FB-type service for academia and request/give
> permissions through it? Isn't it simpler to use email?
>
> Ian Stuart wrote:
>
>> Ricky Rankin wrote:
>>
>>> Sorry to return to this.
>>>
>>> As I understand the arguement goes that by including a eprint request
>>> link/button it is OK to email the publishers pdf as this is the same
>>> as sending a copy through the post.
>>>
>>> A computing colleague has asked why is ths different than displaying
>>> the pdf on the screen of the requester's screen as http is just
>>> another transport protocol?
>>>
>> The difference is that the paper is not Openly available: The author
>> of the paper makes a concious decision to produce a copy for a fellow
>> academic
>>
>> An Open Access (true Open Access) article would have the paper
>> available without restriction.
>>
>>
>
> --
> Dr Talat Chaudhri
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> Research Officer
> UKOLN, University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, Great Britain
> Telephone: +44 (0)1225 385105 Fax: +44 (0)1225 386838
> E-mail: [log in to unmask] Skype: talat.chaudhri
> Web: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ukoln/staff/t.chaudhri/
> ------------------------------------------------------------
--
Dr Talat Chaudhri
------------------------------------------------------------
Research Officer
UKOLN, University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, Great Britain
Telephone: +44 (0)1225 385105 Fax: +44 (0)1225 386838
E-mail: [log in to unmask] Skype: talat.chaudhri
Web: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ukoln/staff/t.chaudhri/
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