The parties in the copyright “Landscape”
The rise of the Internet, digitisation and technological innovations have brought about major changes in the process of scientific and scholarly publication. Rapid technological advances have also quickly improved methods of digital storage, access and distribution of research results.
In the era of “paper” publication, each of the parties in the Copyright Landscape played its own role in the publication process. The parties in that landscape are the scientific/scholarly author, the university institution, the publisher, and the user. The digital revolution of recent years has changed the role of every one of these parties. The boundaries and positions within the landscape used to be clear but they have now become less easy to define. As a result, it is necessary to reappraise the role and position of the various parties concerned. This opens up new options for the four parties but it also raises a number of new questions.
SURF’s aim with this website is to provide answers to questions about copyright by offering practical help to the parties involved in making arrangements. The site also provides explanations and background information so as to clarify the position, roles and interests of the various parties involved.
It is important to be aware that copyright is not something that is perfectly clear and well defined. In fact, it consists of an assemblage of the rights of all the parties concerned. Successfully managing all these rights demands that they be evenly distributed, so as to meet the needs of:
- The scientific/scholarly author – who, as the copyright holder, naturally wants to make the most effective possible arrangements regarding his rights so as to make his publication as widely available and accessible as possible. For the author, it is important that his work has the highest possible profile and impact.
- The university institution – which can use a repository to store, present and reuse its own scientific/scholarly research results without incurring additional costs.
- The publisher – which wants to be rewarded for its efforts in publishing a scientific/scholarly work.
- The user – who wants access to scientific/scholarly material financed from public funds.
All these parties operate within the Copyright Landscape as part of a dynamic in which each of them pursues its own interests.
Clicking on the hyperlinks in the above list will take you to webpages that explain the shifting roles and positions of these parties in relation to one another.