As authors become more resistant to assigning copyright in perpetuity to their publishers, we see new approaches to copyright and quite naturally, in the online world this is changing most rapidly.

 Copyright law varies by country so the Copyright Watch web site is a valuable addition to resources available because it gathers together information on current copyright law in over 180 countries and plans to  monitor and highlight changes as they occur.

 Science Commons is a new initiative launched by Creative Commons intended to give researchers more flexibility when they publish and share data. The initial focus is biomedicine although it is hoped the concept will spread to all disciplines where large amounts of data are collected.

  JISC and SURF have jointly published a model author license agreement to help authors make “appropriate” arrangements with publishers for the publication of a journal article. This ‘License to Publish’ is the result of several years of international consultation and aims to establish a balance of rights and interests consistent with the emerging digital scholarly communications environment. The main features of the ‘License to Publish’ are:

• Copyright in the published work remains with the author
• The author grants the publisher a license to publish the work
• The license takes effect as soon as the publisher has indicated that it wishes to publish the work
• Once the article has been published, the author can make it publicly accessible – in the form in which it was published by the publisher – by making it available as part of a digital scientific collection (a ‘repository’)
• If the publisher requests, the start of such public accessibility can be delayed for a maximum of six months

The new model agreement is intended to be particularly useful where articles are published as part of a subscription service.

  WIPO has published a report, "Intellectual Property on the Internet: A Survey of Issues," that addresses the far-reaching impact that digital technologies – the Internet in particular – have had on intellectual property (IP) and the international IP system. The Survey focuses on recent developments in the traditional fields of copyright, trademarks and patents, as well as domain names, and progress in private international law and alternative dispute resolution.

  The AAAS recently published a report (Scientists’ Authorship Rights in the Digital Age) which examines intellectual property issues associated with online publication by scientists. The executive summary provides an excellent overview of the key issues.

  Copyright continues to be a vital issue to publishers - this web site http://www.copyrightlaws.com/ by Lesley Ellen Harris - a digital rights and copyright lawyer based in Washington DC, is especially useful.

  www.bitlaw.com BitLaw, a resource on technology law, which includes a summary of copyright basics for the USA plus a good overview of how the Internet is affecting legal aspects of information distribution.

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