Copyright Policy Research Articles

Comments on “The Myth of Cleveland Abbe: A Review of a Manufactured History of the Creation of the National Weather Service”

© 2022 American Meteorological Society. For information regarding reuse of this content and general copyright information, consult the AMS Copyright Policy (www.ametsoc.org/PUBSReuseLicenses). *Schultz is the Chief Editor of Monthly Weather Review. Corresponding author: David M. Schultz, david.schultz@manchester.ac.uk

The Role of the Weather, Water, and Climate Enterprise in the Proposed SEC Rule on Climate-Related Disclosures

© 2022 American Meteorological Society. For information regarding reuse of this content and general copyright information, consult the AMS Copyright Policy (www.ametsoc.org/PUBSReuseLicenses). *Ten Hoeve is a member of the American Meteorological Society’s Board on Economic Enterprise Development. CORRESPONDING AUTHOR: John E. Ten Hoeve, john.tenhoeve@noaa.gov

Faculty Motivation for OER Textbook Adoption and Future Use

Most postsecondary instructors in the United States require students to use textbooks in their courses; however, the cost of commercial materials has increased, and copyright policies impede sharing, editing, and customizations of materials. The current study aimed to examine faculty motivation to adopt Open Educational Resources (OER) and how OER use relates to effective teaching practices. Survey data from 469 professors, instructors, lecturers, and research scientists were analyzed using structural equation modeling, which found that autonomous motivation (engagement with OER textbooks based on enjoyment, value) was the strongest positive predictor of current and future OER textbook use. However, use of OER textbooks was not related to self-reported teaching success. The results of this study contribute to better understanding faculty perceptions of and motivation for OER textbook use, along with informing OER adoption initiatives at postsecondary institutions.

A shared path to reforming rights retention in Europe

The Stichting IFLA Foundation Programme in partnership with IFLA, LIBER, and SPARC Europe are implementing a three-year Arcadia Foundation-funded programme to reform copyright laws and regulations that enable libraries to significantly improve access to and use of copyrighted works. Knowledge Rights 21 aims to promote change at European, national, and local levels providing valuable examples for the rest of the world. The programme is driving reform in six key areas, including improving rights retention and open licensing policy and practice. 
 Europe has seen a significant growth in activity to establish and advance open access (OA) policies. However, copyright has been the thorn in the side of many authors, funders, and their institutions who wish to publish OA, since publisher policies and processes are no longer fit for purpose. Today, we require the rights to publish, share, adapt, and reuse material for research, educational, or multilingual needs. Governments, funders, and institutions are responding in different ways to counteract publisher deadlock or restrictions as regards rights retention and open licensing. National policies have been set up in France, Spain, and the Netherlands, and umbrella organisations are calling for legislation like LIBER with its Draft Law for the use of publicly funded scholarly publications. 
 Above all, publisher copyright policies often stand in the way of authors complying with today’s funder requirements. A SPARC Europe 2020 study provided insights into copyright policies of 10 large publishers and numerous smaller ones showing disparities between publishers and shining a light on the complexities that authors face when seeking the right to publish OA. Research funders such as the European Commission’s Horizon Europe programme and the cOAlition S Rights Retention Strategy require authors to retain publishing rights to enable them to share their work more broadly, open access and openly licensed. Funders are currently developing and implementing their strategies, although more funders will need to introduce policies until publishers change their rights retention policies. However, it is also up to the institution that is closest to the author to set publication policies and ensure publication rights for OA as demonstrated by the Harvard model all those years ago and now by the UK (Edinburgh) or Norway (Tromso). Others are piloting rights retention action, such as at the University of Cambridge. However, more efforts need to be undertaken by institutions to make it easier for their authors to legally publish OA. 
 Knowledge Rights 21 intends to accelerate the uptake of rights retention and open licensing to enable researchers to share their work openly. It will do this by calling for publisher, institutional, and funder policy change and by empowering authors to refuse to cede their intellectual property. This presentation will shed light on some of the good practices learnt so far from publishers, institutions, and funders. 
 Knowledge Rights 21 aims to encourage copyright reform in Europe and set up a strong and activecopyright network of libraries to see it through. The development of grassroot capacity across countries will raise the voice of libraries on copyright and build new alliances with researchers, knowledge advocates, and knowledge service providers to bring a long-lasting change. This presentation will outline how we are building this network and how you can take part in bringing about reform in rights retention and open licensing.

Copyright Buddies: Cultivating Teamwork to Support Our Copyright Journey

Our journey to gaining copyright competence started many years ago but from two different points. Susan was teaching an information literacy course and needed to quickly come up to speed to present a unit to her students on copyright and fair use. This led to a book chapter on using fair use cases in the classroom, to taking courses on copyright, attending copyright conferences, and working with New Mexico State University (NMSU) general counsel on an all-campus copyright compliance module. As a newly minted Access Services department head at NMSU Library, Norice traveled down the copyright road from a library services management perspective, developing copyright policies for interlibrary loan, e-reserves, and copy center services. In time, she partnered with the university’s general counsel and others to present copyright sessions across campus. She now regularly teaches copyright to medical students at Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine (Burrell) and has led the development of that college’s copyright policy and guidelines. Our U.S.-Mexico border region is somewhat of a information resource desert, with few academic libraries and librarians nearby to learn from and lean on. We soon became copyright buddies, developing a tag-team approach to helping each other navigate perplexing copyright questions, bouncing ideas and scenarios off one another to support and help each other grow and gain expertise.

Copyright reformed: the narrative of flexibility and its pitfalls in policy and legislative initiatives (2011–2021)

ABSTRACT This article reviews selected copyright policy and legislation at the international, regional and national levels during the period 2011–2021. It identifies a common and consistent narrative that supported reform initiatives in the surveyed jurisdictions: the modernization of copyright requires greater flexibility so that the undertaking of certain acts without authorization is not unduly restricted and a fairer balance of rights and interests may be, as a result, achieved. Through the analysis of reform initiatives in different areas of copyright and across several different jurisdictions, it is shown how the flexibility narrative has on occasion had the effect of unduly altering the preventive nature of copyright’s exclusive rights, inappropriately referring to exceptions and limitations as rights of users, overlooking relevant legal obligations and introducing undue rigidity within the system of private autonomy. It is ultimately submitted that flexibility should not be conflated with fairness. As such, policy- and law-makers should be wary of superficially framing ongoing and future reform discourse around such a narrative without considering the shortcomings that it has led and might unduly lead to.

In Keeping with Academic Tradition: Copyright ownership in higher education and potential implications for Open Education

Most postsecondary institutions in the United States have a copyright and/or intellectual property (IP) ownership policy, outlining under various circumstances the ownership of copyright and IP generated by faculty, staff, and students (Patel, 1996). As awareness of open educational resources (OER) increases and both faculty and student creation of openly licensed materials builds momentum, a closer examination of copyright ownership policies and what legal and ethical implications they may have for open education is crucial. This study analyzed 109 copyright ownership policies at both public and independent two-year and four-year postsecondary institutions of higher education in the U.S. and surveyed facilitators of open education initiatives (generally librarians and related educators) at these same institutions (N = 51) to gather the perceptions and preferences of their copyright policies with respect to locally-developed OER. The content analysis revealed that while the ownership of scholarly works overwhelmingly belongs to the person who created the work, variables such as unusual support and potential uses affect copyright ownership. These factors can be problematic for faculty who receive support through campus programs to create and share openly licensed instructional materials beyond their institution and are also problematic for students participating in OER-enabled pedagogy coursework and projects. While our survey showed that many in the open community indicate that they have great confidence in their understanding of these policies, that certainty is often pinned to a sense of shared values and unspoken assumptions, rather than clear legal rules or reliable policy.

Grand rights and opera reuse today

Abstract This article studies the economic role of grand rights in the incentives to stage and reuse works from the opera canon. It complements previous research on the incentives to create new opera in the way it looks at copyright taxing availability and follow-on creativity around works. Based on a unique dataset of global opera performances, we find that changes in copyright status increase the number of total performances individual works receive on stage once copyright expires. Moreover, we provide preliminary evidence on chilling, long-term effects of status around premiering operas, and revivals at the beginning of the copyright term. Based on these findings, we discuss limitations of the study and novel options for copyright policy frameworks.

The 2020 Record-Breaking Mei-yu in the Yangtze River Valley of China: The Role of Anthropogenic Forcing and Atmospheric Circulation

© 2022 American Meteorological Society. For information regarding reuse of this content and general copyright information, consult the AMS Copyright Policy (www.ametsoc.org/PUBSReuseLicenses).CORRESPONDING AUTHOR: Ying Sun, sunying@cma.gov.cnA supplement to this article is available online (10.1175/BAMS-D-21-0161.2)

What Has Changed Since 2015? A New and Expanded Update on Copyright Practices and Approaches at Canadian Post-Secondaries

Objective – The aim of this study is to update our understanding of how Canadian post-secondary institutions address copyright education, management, and policy matters since our last survey conducted in 2015. Through the new survey, we seek to shed further light on what is known about post-secondary educational copying and contribute to filling some knowledge gaps such as those identified in the 2017 statutory review of the Canadian Copyright Act. Methods – In early 2020, a survey invitation was sent to the person or office responsible for oversight of copyright matters at member institutions of five Canadian regional academic library consortia. The study methods used were largely the same as those employed in our 2015 survey on copyright practices of Canadian universities. Results – In 2020, respondents were fewer in number but represented a wider variety of types of post-secondary institutions. In general, responsibility for copyright services and management decisions seemed to be concentrated in the library or copyright office. Topics covered and methods used in copyright education remained relatively unchanged, as did issues addressed in copyright policies. Areas reflecting some changes included blanket collective licensing, the extent of executive responsibility for copyright, and approaches to copyright education. At most participating institutions, fewer than two staff were involved in copyright services and library licenses were the permissions source most frequently relied on “very often.” Few responded to questions on the use of specialized permissions management tools and compliance monitoring. Conclusion – Copyright practices and policies at post-secondary institutions will continue to evolve and respond to changes in case law, legislation, pedagogical approaches, and students’ learning needs. The recent Supreme Court of Canada ruling on approved copying tariffs and fair dealing provides some clarity to educational institutions regarding options for managing copyright obligations and reaffirms the importance of user’s rights in maintaining a proper balance between public and private interests in Canadian copyright law.

THE CASE ACT: IMPLICATIONS FOR INTERNET STUDIES RESEARCH

Copyright policy is inextricably entangled with the work of academic researchers on Internet culture. This paper examines a new U.S. law, the CASE Act, which creates a new venue for resolving copyright disputes for up to $30,000. We discuss the implications of such a venue for U.S.-based internet studies research.

Book Review: Copyright for Schools: A Practical Guide, 6th Edition

New for 2021 is the sixth edition of Copyright for Schools: A Practical Guide, by Carol Simpson and Sara E. Wolf. Ms. Simpson is an attorney and former professor of library and information science, with additional experience as a school librarian, teacher, and district library administrator. Ms. Wolf is a professor in Auburn University’s College of Education, with research interests in library media and technology and experience in institutional copyright policy development. The book is designed to address the copyright issues and questions that tend to arise for K-12 teachers, school librarians, and school administrators, though librarians in other contexts such as public libraries and higher education would likely find its contents useful too. The sixth edition updates previous editions by adding content on the copyright implications of streaming video services and cloud computing, issues related to disability, responding to cease-and-desist letters, openly licensed resources and Creative Commons licenses, and the implications of the Music Modernization Act. The latest edition of the book also contains a concordance (a table of legal citations and the principles for which they stand), and more robust legal citations than previous editions.

Power to the people? Evaluating the European Commission’s engagement efforts in EU copyright policy

ABSTRACT This paper asks to what extent the European Commission’s stakeholder participation model takes into account non-expert citizen contributions in policy processes pertaining to copyright. In theory, the increasing scale of citizen engagement in stakeholder consultations on copyright could help address the EU’s democratic deficit. The paper analyses the European Commission’s consultation processes in copyright policy across the Barroso 1&2 and Juncker Commissions (2004–2019). It documents the scale and the type of stakeholder involvement in public consultations. Through expert interviews and a survey, the paper gives critical insight into stakeholders’ perception of the Commission’s consultation practices and citizens’ role in policymaking. It concludes that the Commission is inclusive of different types of stakeholders, but casts doubt on the (perceived) motivation and appropriateness of its stakeholder participation model for non-expert citizens. The paper thus sheds light on the attempts and the struggle to engage with citizens in a digital age.

An evaluation of copyright communication infrastructure: Fostering stakeholder harmony in academic libraries in Ghana

Academic librarians find themselves in a lacuna whilst offering support to their users in accessing copyrighted works. This study evaluated the infrastructure for communicating copyright information in a way that would foster stakeholder harmony in academic libraries in Ghana. The study used data from 530 postgraduate students, 38 library staff and 4 head librarians by employing the sequential explanatory mixed methods design. The results show poor knowledge of copyright infrastructure for communicating copyright information. Both students and library staff were either not sure if the library had a designated copyright centre or expert, if the designated centre or expert was located in the library or aware of any department dedicated to educating the university community on the use of copyrighted materials. Also the students did not find information or documentation on copyright policies on their university campuses adequate (ϕ = 0.620, n = 530, P = 0.000). The professional librarians either said “yes” or were “not sure” compared to the paraprofessional staff who thought that there was not enough information/documentation on copyright laws/policies (ϕ = 1.208, n = 38, P < 0.001). Faculty liaison/outreach was the most often used medium to communicate copyright information. However students' preference was for “Online tutorials” for raising awareness of copyrighted materials usage. This study underpins the poor understanding of copyright, and raises potential challenges in stakeholder harmony in academic libraries in Ghana.

Research Skills and Traits of First Year Social Studies Students of Batangas State University- Pablo Borbon

The main objective of the study was to determine the research skills and traits of first-year Social Studies students at the College of Teacher Education (CTE) in Batangas State University- Pablo Borbon. Further, this study also ascertained the students’ description of themselves as student researchers, their assessment of their research skills relative to the formulation of the research problem, gathering literature, methodology, and interpreting the results. The researchers utilized a descriptive method of research in this study with the questionnaire as the primary data gathering instrument. Findings revealed that the students are displaying a high level of intellectual honesty and integrity. With respect to their research skills, they consider their possible respondents when conceptualizing the problem, while in terms of gathering literature, they are very much aware of the copyright and plagiarism policies; in terms of methodology, they begin by choosing the appropriate research design; and in terms of interpreting the result, they know that researchers should provide a list of realistic projects and solutions beneficial to the subject of the study. There is a significant relationship between the respondents’ description and their research skills. Thus, the training program design is proposed to offer innovative ways to improve the researchers’ traits and skills in conducting a study.

Copyright Term Extension: Good Morning to You Productions v Warner/Chappell Music

This chapter focuses on a widely reported case related to the famous folk song ‘Happy Birthday to You’. Written in the late 19th century, the tune was held in copyright by a series of amendments and statutory actions which rendered the world’s most popular song unable to fall into the public domain. This Southern District of New York case allows the chapter to ponder the ever-lengthening copyright term (most commonly life + 70) and point out the absurdity of protecting a work for over a century. Term extension and copyright complexities upset the fair balancing of interests that is taken into consideration by traditional welfare incentive theory when regulating intellectual property rights. Copyright extension and expansion lead to commodification of intellectual assets, which, at least in case of retroactive copyright extension, find no justification in welfare incentive theory and economic analysis of law. Derangement from this theoretical approach, and from proportional balancing of competing interests at stake, then, increasingly exacerbates the ‘intellectual property paradox’ by eroding access and emphasizing protection, while creating a vast array of negative externalities, including depriving the public of the ‘public domain effect’, orphan works, and chilling effects on free speech. In sum, overextended—and overexpanded—copyright protection fundamentally detaches modern copyright policy from its pristine civic purposes and anti-monopolistic sentiments.

Reply to “Comments on ‘The Financial Dilemma of Students Pursuing an Atmospheric Science Graduate Degree in the United States’”

© 2021 American Meteorological Society. For information regarding reuse of this content and general copyright information, consult the AMS Copyright Policy (www.ametsoc.org/PUBSReuseLicenses).CORRESPONDING AUTHOR: Heather S. Sussman, hsussman@albany.eduThe original article that was the subject of this comment/reply can be found at http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/BAMS-D-19-0122.1.

Copyright Policies and Workflows in Libraries. By Allyson Mower

Copyright Policies and Workflows in Libraries. By Allyson Mower

Ensuring the Visibility and Accessibility of European Creative Content on the World Market: The Need for Copyright Data Improvement in the Light of New Technologies

In the European Strategy for Data, the European Commission highlighted the EU’s ambition to acquire a leading role in the data economy. At the same time, the Commission conceded that the EU would have to increase its pools of quality data available for use and re-use. In the creative industries, this need for enhanced data quality and interoperability is particularly strong. Without data improvement, unprecedented opportunities for monetising the wide variety of EU creative content and making this content available for new technologies, such as artificial intelligence training systems, will most probably be lost. The problem has a worldwide dimension. While the US have already taken steps to provide an integrated data space for music as of 1 January 2021, the EU is facing major obstacles not only in the field of music but also in other creative industry sectors. Weighing costs and benefits, there can be little doubt that new data improvement initiatives and sufficient investment in a better copyright data infrastructure should play a central role in EU copyright policy. Creating a work-related data flow from copyright owners to online content platforms, Article 17 of the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market could play a central role in this respect. Tapping into this data flow, it becomes possible to establish an EU copyright data repository offering more comprehensive, accurate and interoperable information on works and rightholders than existing data silos.

The Public Interest and the Information Superhighway: The Digital Future Coalition (1996–2002) and the Afterlife of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act

The Digital Future Coalition (1996–2002) was an unprecedented public interest coalition on internet and copyright policy with much fartherranging effects than has been recognized previously. Uniting commercial and noncommercial stakeholders to push back against intellectual property maximalism on the nascent internet, it altered both treaty and legislative language, entered a trope (“balance”) into national discourse on copyright policy, blocked US copyright protection for databases, enhanced popular engagement with fair use, and set the stage for the Right to Repair movement. This historical research was accomplished primarily by interviewing representatives of the Digital Future Coalition (DFC) and opposing groups, as well as one ex-official, and by consulting a hithertountapped private archive of documents relevant to the prehistory and 1996–2002 history of the DFC.