Month: April 2009

“Copyright’s Hidden Assumption: A Critical Analysis of the Foundations of Descendible Copyright”

Deven R. Desai of the Thomas Jefferson School of Law has made "Copyright's Hidden Assumption: A Critical Analysis of the Foundations of Descendible Copyright" available on SSRN.

Here's an excerpt:

Copyright operates under a hidden, erroneous assumption: heirs matter in copyright. This Article examines the possible historical and theoretical bases for the heirs assumption and finds that neither supports it. In short, the assumption is a myth that harms copyright policy and ignores a less obvious, but quite important, heir: society in general. An examination of the historical debates shows that the idea of providing for heirs through copyright has played a minor role in U.S. copyright history. Instead, heirs have been props to advance an agenda of furthering term extensions, advancing rent-seeking opportunities, and allowing authors to exert power against publishers. In addition, although copyright policy makers point to Europe and the Berne Convention as a key source for the heirs assumption, European debates that serve as the basis for the Berne Convention offer surprising and almost prescient sensitivity to ideas that are found today in the access to knowledge movement. One figure in particular, Victor Hugo, made an impassioned speech arguing that literary property protection must be operate as a way to found the public domain and asserting that when choosing between authors' rights and the public domain, the public domain must win.

“Statutory Damages in Copyright Law: A Remedy in Need of Reform”

Pamela Samuelson and Tara Wheatland, both of the University of California at Berkeley School of Law, have made "Statutory Damages in Copyright Law: A Remedy in Need of Reform" available on SSRN.

Here's an excerpt:

U.S. copyright law gives successful plaintiffs who promptly registered their works the ability to elect to receive an award of statutory damages, which can be granted in any amount between $750 and $150,000 per infringed work. This provision gives scant guidance about where in that range awards should be made, other than to say that the award should be in amount the court "considers just," and that the upper end of the spectrum, from $30,000 to $150,000 per infringed work, is reserved for awards against "willful" infringers. Courts have largely failed to develop a jurisprudence to guide decision-making about compensatory statutory damage awards in ordinary infringement cases or about strong deterrent or punitive damage awards in willful infringement cases. As a result, awards of statutory damages are frequently arbitrary, inconsistent, unprincipled, and sometimes grossly excessive.

This Article argues that such awards are not only inconsistent with Congressional intent in establishing the statutory damage regime, but also with principles of due process articulated in the Supreme Court's jurisprudence on punitive damage awards. Drawing upon some cases in which statutory damage awards have been consistent with Congressional intent and with the due process jurisprudence, this Article articulates principles upon which a sound jurisprudence for copyright statutory damage awards could be built. Nevertheless, legislative reform of the U.S. statutory damage rules may be desirable.

Digital Video on Northwestern’s Mounting Books Project

The Northwestern University Library has made a digital video available about their Mounting Books Project.

Here's an excerpt from the abstract of a presentation on the project that will be given at Open Repositories 2009:

The Northwestern University Library undertook a software development project to create an automated workflow to enable files from its Kirtas book scanner to be both linked to the OPAC with a page viewer application, and ingested into its Fedora repository as archivally sustainable and reusable digital objects. The web-based Book Workflow Interface (BWI) software utilizes jBPM for management and web services for key creation components. It also features an AJAX interface to support drag-and-drop creation and editing of METS-based book structures. The BWI system ingests locally scanned texts as well as texts digitized by external partners or vendors.

Scholarly Electronic Publishing Weblog Update (4/8/09)

The latest update of the Scholarly Electronic Publishing Weblog (SEPW) is now available, which provides information about new works related to scholarly electronic publishing, such as books, e-prints, journal articles, magazine articles, technical reports, and white papers.

Especially interesting are: "Case Study in Data Curation at Johns Hopkins University"; "E-Print Depositing Behavior of Physicists and Astronomers: An Intradisciplinary Study"; "A Field Guide to Misunderstandings about Open Access"; "Innkeeper at the Roach Motel"; "'The Law Is the True Embodiment of Everything That's Excellent': Mandates—A View from the United States: Based on a Presentation Given at the UKSG Seminar 'Mandating and the Scholarly Journal Article: Attracting Interest on Deposits?', London, 29 October 2008"; "Learned Societies and Open Access: Key Results from Surveys of Bioscience Societies and Researchers"; "Leveraging Short-Term Opportunities to Address Long-Term Obligations: A Perspective on Institutional Repositories and Digital Preservation Programs"; "Library Access to Scholarship: The Death of Journals (Film at 11)"; "Perceptions and Experiences of Staff in the Planning and Implementation of Institutional Repositories"; "Scholarly Journal Information-Seeking and Reading Patterns of Faculty at Five US Universities"; "Scientific Journal Publishing: Yearly Volume and Open Access Availability"; and "Signs of Epistemic Disruption: Transformations in the Knowledge System of the Academic Journal."

France’s “Three-Strikes” Copyright Bill Strikes Out

The French National Assembly has rejected a copyright bill aimed at curbing illegal file sharing on the Internet. Violators would have received two warning letters, then be subject to Internet disconnection for up to a year. The fight is not over: a revised bill is anticipated in a few weeks.

Read more about it at: "France Rejects 3 Strikes Anti-Piracy Law," "France Rejects Plan to Curb Internet Piracy," and "French Lawmakers Reject Internet Piracy Bill."

Center for Research Libraries to Assess and Certify Portico and HathiTrust

The Center for Research Libraries will conduct detailed assessments of Portico and HathiTrust with the objective of certifying them as trustworthy digital repositories.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Portico has agreed to cooperate with the CRL audit, with the goal of certification as a trustworthy digital repository. HathiTrust has asked CRL to assess its digital repository, which includes not only Google Books digitization content but a considerable amount of non-Google content as well.

Concurrently CRL is working with LOCKSS to assess the capabilities of the LOCKSS system for harvesting and archiving digitized primary source materials and related metadata. CRL is also gathering information about regional efforts to host licensed digital content locally. . . .

The general metrics to be used in the assessments will be the Trustworthy Repositories Audit and Certification checklist (TRAC).  CRL has formed a panel of advisors who represent the various sectors of its membership, to further inform the assessment process.  The Certification Advisory Panel will ensure that the certification process addresses the interests of the entire CRL community, and will include leaders in collection development, preservation, and information technology.

Open Publication Distribution System Draft Released

Bill McCoy, General Manager of ePublishing Business at Adobe Systems, has announced the release of a draft version of the Open Publication Distribution System.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

Stanza, the leading iPhone eBook software, includes an excellent online catalog system that enables users to seamlessly acquire free and commercial content from within the application. The Lexcycle team built this system in an open, extensible manner using Atom. Adobe and Lexcycle have been working together on Adobe PDF and EPUB eBook support, and now we are deepening that collaboration in working together, along with the Internet Archive and others, to establish an open architecture enabling widespread discovery, description, and access of book and other published material on the open web. The Open Publication Distribution System (OPDS) is a generalization of the Atom approach used by Stanza's online catalog. I'm grateful to the Lexcycle team as well as my friend and colleague Peter Brantley for their efforts on behalf of open access and interoperability.

Read more about it at “Adobe Teams Up With Stanza to Create Open EBook Catalog Standard.”

“Aligning METS with the OAI-ORE Data Model”

Jerome P. McDonough has made "Aligning METS with the OAI-ORE Data Model" available in IDEALS.

Here's an excerpt:

(OAI-ORE) specifications provide a flexible set of mechanisms for transferring complex data objects between different systems. In order to serve as an exchange syntax, OAI-ORE must be able to support the import of information from localized data structures serving various communities of practice. In this paper, we examine the Metadata Encoding & Transmission Standard (METS) and the issues that arise when trying to map from a localized structural metadata schema into the OAI-ORE data model and serialization syntaxes.

Columbia’s Center for Digital Research and Scholarship Launches Harm Reduction Journal Companion Site for Supplemental Materials

The Center for Digital Research and Scholarship at Columbia University Libraries/Information Services has launched a companion site for the Harm Reduction Journal, an open access published by BioMed Central.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Professor Drucker partnered with CDRS to build a site that would allow HRJ authors, editors, and readers to share supplemental materials—such as datasets, commentaries, and translations—and respond to newer articles published on the journal's dot com home. The new dot org site accomplishes this by transforming every article published on HRJ dot com into its own blog. HRJ dot org also provides a forum for announcements, links, and discussion on harm reduction trends and efforts. "This approach enables HRJ to take full advantage of the rapid publication, secure and authoritative archiving, and the powerful dissemination and reach inherent in the medium of open access publishing, while simultaneously creating an open space for 'the long tail' of post-publication possibilities that make internet publications living documents," explained Professor Drucker.

BioMed Central's Director of Journal Publishing, Sarah Cooney, elaborated, "The open-access platform ensures the swift and unrestricted communication of scientific information to researchers. This new companion site will prove hugely significant for encouraging future advances and lead to an increased level of data sharing within the scientific community." CDRS Director Rebecca Kennison noted, "This new site demonstrates in very practical terms the possibilities inherent in open-access publications, which in addition to free access also allow for creative reuse of articles, such as we actively encourage on this companion site."

Forthcoming: Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars by William Patry

Oxford University Press will publish Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars by William Patry, a noted copyright expert and Senior Copyright Counsel at Google.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The way we have come to talk about copyright—metaphoric language demonizing everyone involved—has led to bad business and bad policy decisions. Unless we recognize that the debates over copyright are debates over business models, we will never be able to make the correct business and policy decisions

Reading Rights Coalition Protests Kindle Read Aloud Limits at Authors Guild

The Reading Rights Coalition has staged a protest demonstration at the Authors Guild's headquarters about Amazon giving author's and publishers the ability to restrict the Kindle's read aloud function for their works.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

When Amazon released the Kindle 2 electronic book reader on February 9, 2009, the company announced that the device would be able to read e-books aloud using text-to-speech technology. Under pressure from the Authors Guild, Amazon has announced that it will give authors and publishers the ability to disable the text-to-speech function on any or all of their e-books available for the Kindle 2.

Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said: "The blind and print-disabled have for years utilized text-to-speech technology to read and access information. As technology advances and more books move from hard-copy print to electronic formats, people with print disabilities have for the first time in history the opportunity to enjoy access to books on an equal basis with those who can read print. Authors and publishers who elect to disable text-to-speech for their e-books on the Kindle 2 prevent people who are blind or have other print disabilities from reading these e-books. This is blatant discrimination and we will not tolerate it." . . .

Andrew Imparato, President and Chief Executive Officer for the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), said: "It is outrageous when a technology device shuts out people with all kinds of disabilities. AAPD works to remove barriers to accessibility and usability in technology, and we don’t expect to see people with disabilities singled out by having to pay more for access. New technologies, such as electronic books, should be available to everyone regardless of disability." . . .

The coalition includes: American Association of People with Disabilities, American Council of the Blind, American Foundation for the Blind, Association on Higher Education and Disability, Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, Burton Blatt Institute, Digital Accessible Information System (DAISY) Consortium, Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF), IDEAL Group, Inc., International Center for Disability Resources on the Internet, International Dyslexia Association, International Dyslexia Association––New York Branch, Knowledge Ecology International, Learning Disabilities Association of America, National Center for Learning Disabilities, National Disability Rights Network, National Federation of the Blind, NISH, and the National Spinal Cord Injury Association. In addition to the April 7 New York City protest, the coalition will participate in the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books on April 25-26.

Read more about it at "Disabled Group Protests Removal of Kindle's Text-to-Speech."

Library IT Jobs: Senior Systems Analyst at UT San Antonio Library

The University of Texas at San Antonio Library is recruiting a Senior Systems Analyst.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

  • Incumbent will design, administer and maintain the UTSA Library public web sites and internal web pages.
  • Implement accessible standards-based XHTML/CSS, JavaScript and PHP.
  • Provide relational DBMS support to dynamically generated pages; meet and consult with web content providers.
  • Collaborate and consult with the library staff to identify project needs; troubleshoot and provide problem resolution to users and staff on the use of web applications.
  • Research and evaluate alternative technologies with the capability of recommending the best options to address library needs, and implement the newest technologies after receiving approval.
  • Supervises one or more Systems Analysts in the department.

Penn State’s Digital Library Infrastructure Unit and HP Collaborate on eXtensible Access Method Tests

Penn State's Digital Library Infrastructure unit and HP are collaborating to test the use of the eXtensible Access Method interface standard for mass data storage. (Thanks to ResourceShelf.)

Here's an excerpt from "Penn State Launches Digital Library Archive Initiative with HP":

[Mark] Saussure and his team have recently been collaborating with HP to test digital tools that can be used across all of Penn State's many repository platforms. Primary among these tools is eXtensible Access Method (XAM), a new interface standard created by the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) that is expected to help the University cohesively manage and provide access to its diverse digital library collections, electronic record archives, e-science and e-research data repositories.

"We're talking about hundreds of terabytes to petabytes of information from many sources,” said Saussure. XAM is the digital glue that brings all these data repositories together.

As part of its collaboration with HP, Penn State aims to develop a "tiered" electronic storage architecture to meet data discovery, corporate governance and regulatory compliance requirements for many years to come. The approach is part of the SNIA initiative to seek innovative applications for XAM through the efforts of global companies such as HP, EMC and Sun Microsystems. The initiative encourages universities, businesses and institutions to collaborate with one another to use the power of XAM to better manage the exploding demand for online storage.

Read more about it at "XAM and Penn State's Use of HP's Integrated Archive Platform."

Digital Library Jobs: MIMS Project Officer at University of Edinburgh

The University of Edinburgh Library is recruiting a MIMS Project Officer.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The University Library division is responsible for the management and development of physical and digital collections across the University. In order to manage these collections effectively, and to support a growing demand for digitisation, we are seeking to develop the systems and infrastructure currently in place, and to implement appropriate processes and standards.

Central to the development, management and delivery of our image collections the postholder will work closely with colleagues to ensure a foundation on which we can continue to build and expand our services in this area.

Consumer Watchdog Challenges Google Book Search Settlement

Consumer Watchdog has sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder that challenges the terms of the Google Book Search Copyright Class Action Settlement.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

The proposed settlement announced last year creates the nonprofit Book Rights Registry to manage book digital rights issues. Here are the deal’s two most troubling aspects, Consumer Watchdog said:

—A "most favored nation" clause guarantees Google the same terms that any future competitor might be offered. Under the most favored nation clause the registry would be prevented from offering more advantageous terms to, for example, Yahoo! or Microsoft, even if it thought better terms would be necessary to enable either to enter into the digital books business and provide competition to Google. It is inappropriate for the resolution of a class action lawsuit to effectively create an "anti-compete" clause, which precludes smaller competitors from entering a market. Given the dominance of Google over the digital book market, it would no doubt take more advantageous terms to allow another smaller competitor to enter the market.

—The settlement provides a mechanism for Google to deal with "orphan works." Orphan works are works under copyright, but with the rights holders unknown or not found. The danger of using such works is that a rights holder will emerge after the book has been exploited and demand substantial infringement penalties. The proposed settlement protects Google from such potentially damaging exposure, but provides no protection for others. This effectively is a barrier for competitors to enter the digital book business.

The most favored nation provision should be eliminated to remove barriers of entry and the orphan works provision should be extended to cover all who digitize books, Consumer Watchdog said.

Carl Malamud Wants to Run the U.S. Government Printing Office, Techné Interviews Him

Open access activist Carl Malamud wants to be the Public Printer of the United States, and he has launched Yes We Scan! to support this effort. Techné recently interviewed him about his goal.

Here's an excerpt from the post:

Malamud: I think all my proposals [link added] would be a distinct change in direction or velocity. For example, reliance on bulk data/APIs and then a web site for Official Journals, moving the GPO towards the high-end of publishing with the Library of the USA, and creation of the Academy would all be big changes. And, you can bet their computer systems would get a scrubbing.

Draft Standard for Exchange of Library Acquisitions Data: Cost of Resource Exchange (CORE) Protocol

NISO has released the Cost of Resource Exchange (CORE) Protocol (Z39.95-200x) as a Draft Standard for Trial Use.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

The CORE draft standard defines an XML schema to facilitate the exchange of financial information related to the acquisition of library resources between systems, such as an ILS and an ERMS. The document was approved on March 31, 2009 by the Business Information Topic Committee, which provides oversight to the CORE Working Group.

The CORE standard is being issued for a one-year trial use period, to run from April 1, 2009 through March 31, 2010. Following the DFSTU phase will be an evaluation and correction period before final publication.

"I am very pleased that CORE is available for trial use after just eight months' time. The CORE Working Group has produced a standard that provides a simple and effective solution to the problem of exchanging cost-related data from one system to another," commented Todd Carpenter, NISO's Managing Director.

Birmingham City University Offers M.A. in Social Media

Birmingham City University is offering an M.A. in Social Media.

Here's an excerpt from the program description:

This MA programme will explore the techniques of social media, consider the development and direction of social media as a creative industry, and will contribute new research and knowledge to the field. . . .

The research-based nature of this MA draws upon the expertise of the Interactive Cultures research unit based in the Birmingham School of Media (http://interactivecultures.org/). Our established and innovative work with music and radio industries, policy, cultural entrepreneurship as well as the practices of social media will inform class work and the directions of individual scholarship.

Teaching takes place in small groups. There will be a mixture of lectures, seminars, research workshops, presentations and field-trips. In exploring and innovating in research in social media you will work with other students and engage with professional practitioners, interacting and disseminating ideas through websites, blogs, Twitter and other social media as well as at networking events.

The taught postgraduate phase of the course will comprise modules that explore social media from a cultural studies perspective and explore political economy, social enterprise and social media organisations. The Masters component entails a substantial piece of independent study and the origin of either a social media production project of an original piece of research in the form of a 15000-word dissertation.

Special Collections in ARL Libraries: A Discussion Report from the ARL Working Group on Special Collections

The Association of Research Libraries has released Special Collections in ARL Libraries: A Discussion Report from the ARL Working Group on Special Collections.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Working Group on Special Collections, formed in 2007, has released a discussion report that identifies key issues in the management and exposure of special collections material in the 21st century. . . .

The report includes overviews of and recommendations in three areas:

  1. Collecting Carefully, with Regard to Costs, and Ethical and Legal Concerns
  2. Ensuring Discovery and Access
  3. The Challenge of Born-Digital Collections

It highlights the need for research library leadership to support actions that will increase the visibility and use of special collections and promote both existing and developing best practices in the stewardship of special collections.

WRAP—Warwick Research Archive Project: Final Report

The WRAP—Warwick Research Archive Project: Final Report has been released by the project.

Here's an excerpt:

WRAP's aim was to capitalise on the learning from early adopter institutional repository projects and build a repository for the University of Warwick that would further develop understanding of how repositories can meet the needs of their stakeholders.

Key objectives were to implement a repository for preprints, postprints and theses with the EPrints Open Source software, using SWAP, the Scholarly Works Application Profile, and the EThOS EPrints OAI plugin; to explore the potential for interoperability of the repository with other campus systems; to develop an infrastructure to receive around 350 theses a year; to attract participation by a range of departments and researchers; and to achieve a corpus of over 1500 items by project end. . . .

WRAP has been implemented as a full-text only repository to expose and emphasise Warwick research excellence. The project team also adopted a mediated submission process combined with creation of high quality metadata, including full Library of Congress Subject Headings, to maximise discoverability, interoperability and provide future-proofing.

Although content submission levels are very good technical delays when implementing SWAP with EPrints, combined with the time and effort required to create high quality metadata, have significantly impacted on record creation and ability to meet the initial volume target. However, as the project closes WRAP has achieved many of its aims and objectives, including its primary purpose of providing a repository service that is embedded within the institution. In particular, WRAP has implemented the SWAP metadata schema with EPrints software, obtained an institutional mandate for submission of e-theses, developed procedures for populating the repository, integrated WRAP with the campus search engine, and created a mechanism for transfer of content to and from the Expertise/My Profile system.

France Close to Passing Copyright Bill with “Three-Strikes” Provision to Curb File Sharing

The French National Assembly has approved a key provision of a new copyright law that is aimed at curbing illegal file sharing on the Internet. Violators would receive two warning letters, then be subject to Internet disconnection for up to a year.

New Zealand has recently decided not to enact a "three-strikes" law, and will rewrite it. Recent enactment of a new Swedish law that requires ISPs to reveal the identity of potential violators has resulted in Internet traffic in that country dropping by a third. The EFF has recently debunked reports that some U.S. ISPs, prodded by the RIAA, would disconnect U.S. violators; however, Wired has reported that the MPAA is now in negotiations with ISPs regarding disconnection.

Read more about it at "France Approves Main Section of Tough Anti-P2P Bill," "French Pass 'Three Strikes,' File-Sharing Law: Oh Merde" and "French '3 Strikes' Law Passes 2nd Reading."