Re: Copyright and Published Papers

David Mattison (mattison@freenet.victoria.bc.ca)
Wed, 5 Apr 1995 02:19:24 +0500


Copyright and the Internet don't go well together. There's a growing
amount of literature (paper and electronic) on this subject. Basically,
copyright protection is NOT removed when you put information up on a Web
server or any other information display device. I'm speaking of works
that are copyrighted, not public domain material.

So the question becomes, what protection can copyright holders expect if
their work is released to the Internet, especially in an open environment
like the Web? The answer of course is none unless the Web site itself
provides that protection. Authors can put all the copyright symbols and
statements they want on their work, but they are still relying on the good
will of the researcher and reader to respect their copyright.

Having had many articles published in journals -- and having assigned
copyright to the journal publisher as a condition of publication -- I can
say that you will need to get permission in writing from the journal -- if
it holds copyright -- to put the material up on your Web site. No harm in
asking, you might be surprised by the answer.

David Mattison
Web Co-editor
Victoria Free-Net
mattison@freenet.victoria.bc.ca

On Tue, 4 Apr 1995, Chris Kirby wrote:

> I am currently setting up a home page for our site and I am wondering about
> Copyright and published (and not yet published) papers. We have some people
> in our group who have some various papers they have written which I would
> like to put on our web server. We are wondering what issues there are to
> putting a paper on a webserver. Can you do it after it has been published
> in a journal. Can you do it if you are going to publish it in a journal.
>
> Hopefully someone has an answer to this question...
>
> Chris Kirby
>