Subject: Can an Author Post His Article Published in a Journal on His Web Site? From: "Lindsey, S Marc" <lindseym@xxxxxxx> Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2007 15:20:22 -0700 |
This is a reply to Jonathon Poritz from Colorado State University. See Sandy Hadock's post of August 22. I've recently researched this very issue and the answer, like many to copyright issues, is complex. What we have to determine the legal position of this issue is the opinions of the copyright law titans, Melville and David Nimmer, the split opinions of a few federal courts and a law review article pretty much on point in this discussion by Mathew Walden that I'll share with you. You can post your article on your web site without the permission of the publisher whom you have assigned all rights, if it qualifies as Fair Use. Many publishing contracts assigning copyrights from the author to the publisher expressly forbid using published material without the Publisher's permission whether it is fair use or not. The question then becomes, does federal copyright law (17 USC Section 107 - fair use) preempt state contract law? The afore mentioned copyright scholars argue that it does. And it's a very persuasive argument. See Walden's law review article link below. If they are correct, and posting an article you have authored on your web site is fair use, then you don't need the publisher's permission. Without all the facts necessary for a full blown four factor fair use analysis, I am inclined to think that this is fair use if you are using a password protected web site and only students enrolled in your class have access. . Hence no competition in the market with the publisher. If, however, you intend to post your article on an open access web site, it becomes more of a stretch for qualifying for fair use, but not impossible. In my experience most academic publishers will give limited permission to authors to reprint or post articles. You'll only know for sure by asking the publisher. For a detailed legal analysis on federal law preempting state contract laws, go to: Walden, Matthew D., Washington and Lee Law Review, Fall 2001 (http://find articles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3655/is_200110/ai_n8957262/pg_1 <http://find articles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3655/is_200110/ai_n8957262/pg_1> ) I'd sure like to hear comments on this by others on this list. Thanks. Marc Lindsey Copyright Specialist, Washington State University and WSU Press
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