E-Book Reader Upgrade: New Sony Reader PRS-505 Firmware for Better PDF Reading, Using DRM-Protected PDFs, and ePub Format Support

Sony has released a firmware upgrade that will allow its Sony Reader PRS-505 to "reflow" PDFs, access PDFs with DRM protection, and use the ePub format. Next month, new PRS-505 models will ship with these capabilities.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Sony today announced that its Reader Digital Book will be the first eBook reading device to support the EPUB format, the International Digital Publishing Forum’s XML-based standard format for reflowable digital books and publications.

Starting next month, new Readers model PRS-505, will be able to access and accept secure and non-secure ebooks in the EPUB format. EPUB has gained acceptance among major trade book publishers, many of whom have committed to begin publishing forthcoming ebooks in the format.

Additionally, the device will support Adobe eBooks with digital rights management and have the capability to reflow standard text-based Portable Document Format (PDF) eBooks for improved flexibility and readability. These enhancements are now made possible with the support of Adobe Digital Editions 1.5 software, which is available as a free download at www.adobe.com/products/digitaleditions.

"The Reader is an open device and we will continue to explore formats that will provide the widest variety of content for Reader users," said Steve Haber, senior vice president of consumer product marketing for Sony Electronics. "This upgrade opens the door to a whole host of paid and free content from third-party eBook stores, web sites and even public libraries."

Reader users can transfer these documents to their devices using Adobe Digital Editions software, or via the updated Sony eBook Library software that comes packaged with new Readers. Current owners of the PRS-505 model can upgrade their units now from the Sony support site:http://esupport.sony.com. . . .

PRS-505 model Readers will continue to support BBeB formatted eBooks offered at the Sony eBook Store. Therefore, users can retain and grow their current collections of eBooks without having to reformat or repurchase them. All files are conveniently managed by the eBook Library software.

NIH Mandate Works: Article Deposits in PubMed Central Dramatically Increase

Library Journal Academic Newswire reports that article deposits in PubMed Central have dramatically increased (e.g., 2,593 deposits in May 2008 vs. 948 in May 2007) as a result the NIH mandate, which requires "all investigators funded by the NIH submit or have submitted for them to the National Library of Medicine's PubMed Central an electronic version of their final peer-reviewed manuscripts upon acceptance for publication, to be made publicly available no later than 12 months after the official date of publication."

Read more about it at "PubMed Central Submissions Jump Sharply Under New NIH Policy."

Six Largest UK ISPs to Crackdown on Illegal File Sharing in Deal with BPI

The UK's six largest ISPs and the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding about restraining illegal file sharing.

Here's an excerpt from the BPI press release:

UK record labels' association BPI today reached a groundbreaking agreement with major internet service providers (ISPs) and government on measures to help significantly reduce illegal filesharing.

Following negotiations facilitated by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), BPI on behalf of hundreds of UK record companies big and small has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), with the UK's six largest internet service providers. The Motion Pictures Association of America and BERR have also signed.

The MOU places joint commitments on the signatories to continue developing consumer education programmes and legal online services. Most importantly, for the first time ISPs will be required to work with music and other rightsholders towards a "significant reduction" in illegal filesharing.

To achieve this, in the first year hundreds of thousands of informative letters will be sent by participating ISPs to customers whose accounts have been identified by BPI as being used illegally. In addition, under the auspices of Ofcom, the signatories will work together to identify effective mechanisms to deal with repeat offenders.

Alongside the MOU, BERR has today published a consultation on proposed new legislation requiring ISPs to deal effectively with illegal filesharing. It is anticipated that the outcome of this consultation will provide a co-regulatory backdrop to the MOU.

Read more about it at: "ISPs to Send 'Hundreds of Thousands' of File-Sharing Warnings"; "ISPs Yet to Decide on File-Sharer Punishment"; "Online Crackdown: What You Need to Know"; "'This Is Not Three Strikes and You're Out. It Is a Letter'"; and "Transcript from BPI Call with Journalists This Morning."

Dean Krafft Named Cornell University Library’s Chief Technology Strategist

Long-term Cornell employee Dean Krafft has been named as the Cornell University Library's Chief Technology Strategist.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

"Dean Krafft brings a wealth of experience to this position, as well as a profound respect for the role research libraries play in the academy," said Anne R. Kenney, Cornell’s Carl A. Kroch University Librarian. "This is a brand new position for the library world, and I can't think of a better person to help us understand its full potential. . . ."

As the chief technology strategist, Krafft will serve on the Library’s senior management team, focusing his efforts on the development of a long-term vision for CUL’s technology future and assessing the IT trends and innovations that impact the Library. He will also serve as an ambassador for collaborative technology initiatives across the University and in national and international efforts.

"The very rapid changes in the information landscape and the needs and workflows of Cornell's faculty, staff and students make these challenging times," Krafft said. "I am very much looking forward to working with the Library staff and the Cornell community to help ensure that the Library remains at the intellectual heart of university life and scholarship."

Before his appointment, Krafft served as the senior research associate and director of information technology and in several positions in the Computer Science Department since 1981. He also received his Master’s and PhD degrees in computer science from Cornell.

RoMEO: Now with 400+ Publisher Self-Archiving Policies

SHERPA's RoMEO service now contains over 400 publisher self-archiving policies.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The RoMEO service, provided by the award winning SHERPA Partnership, uses a simple colour-code to classify policies and inform authors of what can be done with their articles, and offers users the ability to:

  • View summaries of publishers' copyright policies in relation to self-archiving
  • View if publisher policies comply with funding regulations, as some publishers are too restrictive and cannot be used to publish funded research
  • To search journal and publisher information by Journal Title, Publisher Name and ISSN

RoMEO is seen as an essential resource by many in the Open Access community. RoMEO is funded by JISC and the Wellcome Trust. Journal information is kindly provided by the British Library's Zetoc service hosted by MIMAS

Digital Will Be Default Format for Astrophysical Journal Letters in 2009

According to a 7/22/08 message by Michael R. Blake on liblicense-l ("American Astronomical Society Subscription Change"), digital distribution will be the default format for the Astrophysical Journal Letters starting in 2009. Customers who want a print version will need to request it. Print will be available at no extra cost in 2009; however, it is anticipated that there will be a charge at some future point.

Bibliography of Open Access Released

The Open Access Directory has released the Bibliography of Open Access.

The Bibliography of Open Access is based on my Open Access Bibliography: Liberating Scholarly Literature with E-Prints and Open Access Journals, which was published in 2005 by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License.

With my permission and the agreement of ARL, most of the Open Access Bibliography has been converted to the MediaWiki format to form the basis of the Bibliography of Open Access. The new bibliography will be authored by registered Open Access Directory users, who can add or edit references. It is under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

The initial version of new bibliography has live links; however, they were last updated in August 2004, when the text of the Open Access Bibliography was frozen for print publication preparation. These links can now be updated by registered users.

The Open Access Bibliography, which contains textual sections not found in the Bibliography of Open Access, remains freely available in HTML and PDF formats at Digital Scholarship and as a printed book.

The Editor of the Open Access Directory is Robin Peek, the Associate Editor is David Goodman, and the Assistant Editor is Athanasia Pontika. The OAD editors, Peter Suber, and myself worked as a team on the initial version of the Bibliography of Open Access.

Latest APA Deposit Policy Allows Authors to Self-Archive Articles in Institutional Repositories and on Personal Web Sites

The latest revision of the American Psychological Association's "Document Deposit Policy and Procedures for APA Journals" permits authors to self-archive final peer-reviewed copies of NIH-funded articles in institutional repositories and on personal Web sites.

Here's an excerpt from the policy:

Authors of manuscripts to be published in APA journals may post a copy of the final peer-reviewed manuscript, as a word processing, PDF, or other type file, on their personal Web site or on their employer's server after the manuscript is accepted for publication. The following conditions would prevail: The posted article must carry an APA copyright notice and include a link to the APA journal home page, and the posted article must include the following statement: "This article may not exactly replicate the final version published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of record.” APA does not provide electronic copies of the APA published version for this purpose, and authors are not permitted to scan in the APA published version.

The revised policy also indicates that the final published article may be deposited by the APA in PubMed Central if required by a funding agency other than the NIH (for NIH-funded research "the final 'Word' version of the author-generated manuscript with all changes based on peer-review editorial feedback and found acceptable by the editor" will be deposited by the APA without charging the author's institution).

Peter Suber has commented on this revised policy in his "New Interim Policy from the APA" posting.

Proposed Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association Developing By-Laws

A proposed Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association is developing by-laws.

The latest draft is dated 5/27/08. Gunther Eysenbach, publisher of the Journal of Medical Internet Research, has critiqued it in his "Creating an Organization for Open Access Publishers—But Should We Let Big Publishers Dominate?" posting. David Solomon, co-editor of Medical Education Online, has replied to these concerns in an extensive comment to Eysenbach's posting.

DSpace Can Support One Million Items

A paper by researchers from the National Library of Medicine ("Testing the Scalability of a DSpace-based Archive") finds that DSpace can support an archive with a million items. The tested system "is built upon MIT's DSpace software (Version 1.4), with some modifications and enhancements to better facilitate batch based processing."

Here's an excerpt from the conclusion:

We conclude that the version of DSpace used in SPER (with MySQL database) shows acceptable ingest performance for a million-item archive. . . .

The experimental results shown here pertain to items with mostly one or two monochrome TIFF images, though a few items have up to 100 images. However, a number of inferences may be derived from these results.

  • No real problems were found in ingesting a million items to the archive, using a Sun X4500 server machine, in terms of either performance or reliability of the SPER/DSpace software architecture and implementation. . . .
  • With the increase in archive size, the average ingest time of an item increases in a smooth and predictable way.
  • With increasing number of TIFF images, the ingest time (per item) increases by three to four percent for each additional image.
  • If color TIFF images were used, the ingest times would increase slightly due to the overhead of copying additional data to the upload area, and to the archive's asset storage. However, other archival overheads should not change.

EC Proposes 95-Year Copyright Term for Recorded Performances, Issues Copyright Green Paper

The European Commission has proposed a 95-year copyright term for recorded performances. It has also issued Green Paper: Copyright in the Knowledge Economy.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Term of protection. . . .

The extended term would benefit performers who could continue earning money over an additional period. A 95-year term would bridge the income gap that performers face when they turn 70, just as their early performances recorded in their 20s would lose protection. They will continue to be eligible for broadcast remuneration, remuneration for performances in public places, such as bars and discotheques, and compensation payments for private copying of their performances.

The extended term would also benefit the record producers. It would generate additional revenue from the sale of records in shops and on the Internet. This should allow producers to adapt to the rapidly changing business environment which is characterised by a fast decline in physical sales (- 30% over the past five yeas) and the comparatively slow growth of online sales revenue.

In addition, when it concerns a musical composition, which contains the contributions of several authors, the Commission proposes a uniform way of calculating the term of protection. . . .

Green Paper on Copyright in the Knowledge Economy. . . .

With this Green Paper, the Commission plans to have a structured debate on the long-term future of copyright policy in the knowledge intensive areas. In particular, the Green Paper is an attempt to structure the copyright debate as it relates to scientific publishing, the digital preservation of Europe's cultural heritage, orphan works, consumer access to protected works and the special needs for the disabled to participate in the information society. The Green Paper points to future challenges in the fields of scientific and scholarly publishing, search engines and special derogations for libraries, researchers and disabled people.

The Green paper focuses not only on the dissemination of knowledge for research, science and education but also on the current legal framework in the area of copyright and the possibilities it can currently offer to a variety of users (social institutions, museums, search engines, disabled people, teaching establishments).

SPARC and ARL Refute AAP Assertions about NIH Public Access Policy

SPARC and ARL have released a white paper, NIH Public Access Policy Does Not Affect U.S. Copyright Law, that refutes assertions made by the Association of American Publishers about the NIH Public Access Policy.

Here's an excerpt from the Summary:

Contrary to the AAP assertions, the NIH Public Access Policy does not affect U.S. copyright law in any way. NIH has added a condition to pre-existing licensing terms in its grant agreements that affirms it can legally provide public access to publicly funded research. This change in the terms of NIH grant agreements is fully consistent with copyright law. Copyright is an author’s right. Researchers are the authors of the articles they write with NIH support. In exchange for substantial federal funding, these researchers voluntarily agree to grant the federal government a license to provide public access to the results of publicly funded research. NIH receives a non-exclusive license from federally funded researchers, who retain their copyrights and are free to enter into traditional publication agreements with biomedical journals or assign these anywhere they so choose, subject to the license to NIH.

This change in the terms of the Public Access Policy has no relation to United States compliance with international intellectual property treaties. The Berne Convention on Copyright and the TRIPS Agreement concern the substance of copyright law, not the terms of licenses granted to the United States in exchange for federal funding. It is longstanding federal policy that in all federal contracts that pay for the creation of copyrighted works, the funding agency must receive a copyright license in exchange for federal funding. It is well recognized that these licenses given by authors have no effect on the robust set of protections given to authors in the United States Copyright Act and similarly raise no issues with respect to international copyright law.

Texas Digital Library Hosts Second E-Journal

The Texas Digital Library is hosting the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research. The first issue is now available.

Articles in the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research are freely available in the PDF format, and they are under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

The journal is edited by Jeremiah Spence, a doctoral student at the University of Texas at Austin's College of Communication.

The Texas Digital Library also hosts the Journal of Digital Information. Articles in the Journal of Digital Information are freely available in the PDF or HTML formats, and authors retain the copyright to them. Supported by the Texas A&M University Libraries, it is edited by Cliff McKnight, Professor of Information Studies at Loughborough University, and Scott Phillips, Research and Development Coordinator at the Texas A&M University Libraries' Digital Initiatives department.

APA Backs Off $2,500-per-Article PubMed Central Deposit Fee

The American Psychological Association is reconsidering its previously announced $2,500-per-article PubMed Central deposit fee. (See the updated Open Access News "APA Will Charge Authors for Green OA" posting.")

Here's an excerpt from the APA's just revised "Document Deposit Policy and Procedures for APA Journals":

A new document deposit policy of the American Psychological Association (APA) requiring a publication fee to deposit manuscripts in PubMed Central based on research funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is currently being re-examined and will not be implemented at this time. . . . APA will soon be releasing more detailed information about the complex issues involved in the implementation of the new NIH Public Access Policy.

Open Access Directory Releases OA Journal Business Models

The Open Access Directory has released a new Wiki page on OA Journal Business Models.

The page currently discusses 11 models, often providing helpful examples:

  1. Added-value products
  2. Advertising
  3. Endowments
  4. Hybrid OA journals
  5. Institutional subsidies
  6. Membership dues
  7. Non-OA publications
  8. Publication fees
  9. Reprints
  10. Submission fees
  11. Volunteer effort

International Study on the Impact of Copyright Law on Digital Preservation Released

The Library of Congress has released the International Study on the Impact of Copyright Law on Digital Preservation. The report was a collaborative effort by the Library of Congress National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program, JISC, the OAK Law Project, and the SURF Foundation.

Here's an excerpt from "Purpose and Background of the Report":

This Report was undertaken:

  1. to review the current state of copyright and related laws and their impact on digital preservation;
  2. to make recommendations for legislative reform and other solutions to ensure that libraries, archives and other preservation institutions can effectively preserve digital works and information in a manner consistent with international laws and norms of copyright and related rights; and
  3. to make recommendations for further study or activities to advance the recommendations in the Report.

APA's NIH Deposit Policy: APA Will Bill Author's Institution $2,500-per-Article Fee

The American Psychological Association's "Document Deposit Policy and Procedures for APA Journals" outlines its policies and procedures regarding the requirements of the NIH Public Access Policy. It indicates that authors are not to deposit accepted articles in PubMed Central. Rather, the APA will do so, billing the author's institution a $2,500-per-article fee. Upon acceptance, the APA will deposit the author's Word file "with all changes based on peer-review editorial feedback and found acceptable by the editor." The APA will retain the article copyright, and authors are not allowed to deposit the final peer-reviewed manuscript in any other repository. A deposit form must be submitted for each article.

This policy also addresses Wellcome Trust deposit procedures and fees.