[GRASS-dev] Re: [GRASS-user] thanks to GRASS!

[J Dougherty]

On Wednesday 11 July 2007 13:12, Maris Nartiss wrote:
> I think there could be some legal issues.
>
> I.e. from COMPUTERS & GEOSCIENCES Guide for Authors [1] "e) if
> accepted, will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English
> or in any
> other language, without the written consent of the Publisher."
> IANAL but putting article PDF on wiki may be threated as "publishing"?
>
> Maris.

The key phrase is the one that reads ". . . in the same form . . ."  Just as 
the author has a copyright to his or her own original work, so does the 
publisher retain rights with respect to how the paper is published in their 
journal.  All the formatting and apearance of the piece, as well as the 
editing and proof work were paid for by the publisher, any illustrations that 
they developed for you, etc.  Thus, they don't want you giving away their 
work for free.  So, first rule is don't post copies of the published version 
as it appears in the journal without explicit (written) permission, which is 
what they are saying anyway.  

IF you sign a transfer of copyright, things are different.  Effectively you 
have turned over your rights to the text and your own work, with the 
exception of whatever uses they tell you that you retain.  (In the music 
industry many composers and lyricists have completely lost the right to 
perform their own works without permission.)  You might have to rewrite the 
whole thing in a different form before using it again.  Of course, when you 
look at the way in which some researchers wall paper various journals with 
closely related papers that all effectively say the same thing, this must be 
pretty common.  Sometimes the biggest difference between two related articles 
seems to be the order in which the authors are listed.

JWDougherty