I have no ax to grind in this matter, but would ask the following questions:

1) If authors only give nonexclusive rights to 
publishers, publishers will then not have legal 
standing to sue for infringement, and it will be 
the individual author's responsibility to take 
action and pay all expenses pertaining thereto. 
Is that a burden authors wish to bear?  (There 
are at least some kinds of infringement that 
authors need to be concerned about, to protect 
the integrity of their work.)

2) What does "by default" mean? Copyright law 
defines the owner of copyright to be the author 
(or, in the case of a work made for hire, the 
employer). There can be no "default" giving any 
other parties joint ownership unless a specific 
written agreement is signed to that effect.

3) If subscription costs are held flat for five 
years, does that mean that journals cannot expand 
in length over that period of time? (I understand 
that the increase in size of journals is one of 
the factors that has contributed to driving up 
subscription prices.)

4) How is the "excellence" of a journal to be 
assessed? Are journals reviewed anywhere (except, 
occasionally, in the Times Higher Education 
Supplement)? Who is to tell a publisher which 
journals to drop?

Sandy Thatcher


At 5:32 PM -0400 5/15/12, LIBLICENSE wrote:
>From: Bernard Rentier - IMAP <[log in to unmask]>
>Date: Tue, 15 May 2012 08:32:32 +0200
>
>To answer Alicia Wise's query, 6 proposals of positive things from
>publishers that should be encouraged :
>
>Allow systematically and under no condition and at no cost depositing
>the peer-reviewed postprint - either the author's refereed, revised
>final draft or - even better for the Publishers publicity - the
>publisher's version of record in the author's institutional
>repository.
>
>Remove from authors' contracts the need to sign away their rights and
>transform it into a "non exclusive license" of their rights.
>
>Agree that by default, part of the rights on an article belong to the
>author's Institution if public and/or to the Funding organization, if
>public.
>
>Reduce significantly (or at least freeze for 5 years) the purchasing
>cost of periodicals, then increase at the real inflation rate,
>officially measured in Western countries (1-3 % per year).
>
>Reduce significantly the number of periodical titles published, aiming
>for excellence and getting rid of the mediocre title which are bundled
>in Elsevier's "Big Deals" and similar "deals" by other publishers.
>This would reduce their monopolistic position.
>
>Reward Institutions for the work provided by reviewers, editors andŠ
>authors, either directly or indirectly through lower subscription
>costs.
>
>Bernard Rentier


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that so few people who can write know 
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