[LIS-Forum] (no subject)

[Mailing List Manager]

Tue, 3 Aug 2004 16:35:44 +0530
"Shalini R.Urs"  shalini at vidyanidhi.org.in

Dear friends,

Please read the complete report before jumping to conclusions- the Sabo
bill and the NIH policy is still in the 'debate' stage and there is no
conclusive evidence to say that 'NIH research to be open access'. If you
read the whole piece, you will understand the undercurrents of the
issues.This is a case of typical 'double speak'.   The article begins with
the usual brouhaha bait  by  Zehrouni, Director of NIH, about 'public
needs to have access to what they have paid for', but he is quick to add -
let me quote
> But Zerhouni tried to assure participants that the government was not
yet
> creating a mandate and that their views would be taken into account
before
> the policy was finalized. He also distanced himself from the House
report,
> saying that NIH did not prepare it, even though the wording was
"inspired"
> by deliberations within the agency.
----
> Zerhouni said that individual repositories tend to fade out. He also
told
> participants that NIH had no intention of becoming a journal publisher
and
> the public is aware of the value of journals' peer reviews.
----
The issue of scholarly publishing, copyright ,  etc cannot be resolved by
rhetorical positioning alone but by dispassionate understanding of the
implications and realities.Let us understand the basics of copyrights,
right.
The first copyright act-the Statute of Queen Anne of 1710 introduced the
concept of author being the owner of copyright. The original purpose was
to exercise central authority to control publishing and generate tax
revenue for the government! But then soon copyrights evolved  and the aim
of copyrights is to  provide stimulus for creativity

Copyright is not just about  economic rights  but about also about
paternity rights. The copyrights  also cover the right of paternity by
which authors have the right to claim authorship of their works ensuring
that their names are mentioned in connection with it. The right of
integrity is another dimension of the copyright. It is not without reason
that  the word 'author' etymologically  means father.

If  'copyrights' are banned then  what incentive will a scientist  have to
publish? The forces and incentives that help produce creative or
intellectual works are diverse. In the end, if  bills like Sabo bill if
passed then few scholars would spend their time and efforts to publish.
One critical difference between the Government 'banning copyright' and
authors assigning / transferring certain rights to publishers is- while
the latter is voluntary   the former is not. Actually it amounts to
'taking away' the rights and potentially has all the ingredients of
governments hegemony over academe.

Second and more complicated issue is of paternity rights. Like all rights
copyrights also have the 'responsibility' dimension. Can the government
own responsibility for  everything that is written and published by the
scientists/scholars?
Imagine a scenario  like this- Salman Rushdie were to be a Professor at
some university and publish 'The Satanic Verses' , will his  university be
held responsible for his writings ? Will the university  be banned and
face the death threat from Iranian clergy ? Organisations cannot own up
the responsibility for one scholar's writings.
Do not think that the scenario of 'Satanic Verses' is only in literature
but it could well be in sciences as well.
Imagine the  classic case of Galileo's  treatise 'Dialogue concerning the
two chief world systems' proving the logical superiority of the Copernican
theory for which he was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Roman
Catholic Church, and eventually died a recluse under house arrest.Would
the University of Padua where Galileo served as a professor of Mathematics
would have been held responsible for his writings and served a life
sentence?

Finally friends- this piece  is written  as part of my professional
interests to air my views on the topic by me-Shalini Urs- a professor at
an  Indian University  and these are my views and I not only own
copyrights but also am liable to be held responsible for these views. My
university's views on this issue if and when decided will only be
expressed as an official policy statement with the authority and official
seal of the University of Mysore!


Shalini
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr.Shalini R.Urs
Director
Information & Communication Division
&
Professor and Chairperson
Department of Library and Information Science
University of Mysore
Manasagangotri
Mysore- 570006
India
Ph : 91-821-2514699
Fax: 91-821-2519209
Website:http://www.vidyanidhi.org.in/shaliniurs.htm
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------