Copyright Law and Institutional Repositories: News and Views from Across the Water
2:00-3:30 pm on Friday, October 7, 2005
Indiana University Bloomington, Herman B. Wells Library, Room LI001
Charles Oppenheim
Department of Information Science
Loughborough University, United Kingdom
ABSTRACT
This talk will consider two current key areas relevant to scholarly publishing from the point of view of developments in the United Kingdom. Copyright law has for many years been steadily shifting to favour the rights of owners against those of users. Recent developments in UK copyright law will be described, together with an explanation of the tensions that have brought about the changes and an explanation of how the changes fit into rights owners’ broader strategies. The implications for scholars and for librarians’ daily work will be considered. In contrast to the somewhat depressing picture painted by developments in copyright law, the picture regarding Open Access and Institutional Repositories favours scholars and librarians more. A brief background to Open Access and Institutional Repositories will be followed by an account of recent initiatives in the UK, the current research being undertaken by the presenter, and some predictions regarding the future of Repositories in the UK.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Charles Oppenheim is Professor of Information Science at Loughborough University, United Kingdom. Prior to that, he held a variety of posts in academia and the electronic publishing industry, working for International Thomson, Pergamon and Reuters at various times. He has published widely on legal issues in information work since the mid-1970s and conducted research on bibliometrics, electronic publishing, open access, ethical issues and information policy. He has been a member of the United Kingdom’s Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) since 1992, participating in working groups on scholarly publishing and intellectual property rights and also managing projects that have included Open Access, eprints, pricing issues and copyright issues. Professor Oppenheim is an Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals and a member of the Legal Advisory Board of the European Commission. He was the Specialist Advisor to the House of Lords’ Inquiry into the Information Superhighway. He serves on the editorial board of a number of professional and learned journals, including the Annual Review of Information Science and Technology (ARIST). For more information on Professor Oppenheim, see his home page at: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/ls/people/coppenheim.html.
