Creative Common License
Edward M. Corrado
Earlier this month we were discussing requiring a particular Creative
Common License [1]. The license we were considering is the CC-BY. The
main reason for choosing this particular Open Access license is that it
is the one required by the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and
to receive a SPARC Europe Seal. I think we almost came to a conclusion
on this, but I didn't see any definitive word on it (nor could I find
one in the logs). With that in mind, I suggest we do the following:
1) From Issue 3 on, we require the author of all articles to agree to
the CC-BY license.
2) Assigned Editors for articles in Issues 1 & 2 will contact the
authors and request that the authors to license the articles using the
CC-BY.
3) Update the Web site to reflect the license for each article. This
should be a simple template change for Issues 3 forward, but if for some
reason we can't get an author in Issue 1 or 2 to agree to a CC-BY, we
may have to do a little more work.
4) At the very least we need to have the authors of the articles in 1
and 2 agree to a license of some sort so that people know what the terms
and conditions are. However, I hope that everyone will agree to the CC-BY.
What does everyone say? If you are for this plan, send a "yea" to the
list, if you are against, send a "nay." If we have more yeas then nays
by Monday, June 2 at 8:00 AM EDT. lets call it an official decision.
Edward
PS: Consider this a "yea" vote from me.
[1] See thread here:
http://groups.google.com/group/c4lj-discuss/browse_thread/thread/4b4cc6589ac12c88#
Carol Bean
Ken Varnum
--
Ken Varnum
Web Systems Manager
University Library E: var...@umich.edu
University of Michigan T: 734-615-3287
309 Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library F: 734-647-6897
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1205 http://www.lib.umich.edu/
Jonathan Rochkind
One outstanding question is: How do we receive and record the authors
licensing? Email is enough (for now)? Should we keep those emails on
file in any particular place?
This plan doesn't mention what to do with code samples, which was a
point of confusion before. I think the plan is fine anyway, and we can
work out details of code samples later. But if I was going to suggest an
addition for code samples it would be:
1b) Any code samples included as part of the article (in-line, or as
attachments hosted on our server) must be licensed either under CC-BY or
instead under the Open Source license (approved by the Open Source
Initiative) of the authors' choice. Authors should let us know if they'd
like to apply a license other than CC-BY to code samples.
Jonathan
--
Jonathan Rochkind
Digital Services Software Engineer
The Sheridan Libraries
Johns Hopkins University
410.516.8886
rochkind (at) jhu.edu
Edward M. Corrado
> +1 ("yea"). Thanks for stating the plan clearly, Ed.
>
> One outstanding question is: How do we receive and record the authors
> licensing? Email is enough (for now)? Should we keep those emails on
> file in any particular place?
>
> This plan doesn't mention what to do with code samples, which was a
> point of confusion before. I think the plan is fine anyway, and we can
> work out details of code samples later. But if I was going to suggest an
> addition for code samples it would be:
>
> 1b) Any code samples included as part of the article (in-line, or as
> attachments hosted on our server) must be licensed either under CC-BY or
> instead under the Open Source license (approved by the Open Source
> Initiative) of the authors' choice. Authors should let us know if they'd
> like to apply a license other than CC-BY to code samples.
>
> Jonathan
>
SPARC? I'm not sure, but I thought that was the case. If it is, then we
need to encourage a dual license. If not, I am all in favor of your 1b.
Edward
Jonathan Rochkind
for now. I don't see any negative to a dual license.
1b) Code samples included as part of the article (in-line or as
attachments hosted on our server) will be included under the CC-BY
license as part of the article. However, we very much encourage authors
to additionally license any included code under an open source code
license. Authors should let us know if they'd like to use an open source
license for included code, and we will note code licensing on the
published article.
--
Edward M. Corrado
will assume anyone that has already voted is fine with 1b. So if you are
not, please let me know.
For the record, I am saying yes to 1b.
Edward
Jodi Schneider
Andrew Darby
But I'd say we keep things simple by asking that any inline code be
governed by the overall license of the article (CC-BY)--i.e., do
require it. If they don't want other people to freely use their code,
well, maybe they aren't a good fit for the Journal? What's the point
of including code if people can't use it?
On the A List Apart copyright page [1], which is a good example of an
online journal that includes code, they state:
"In its tutorials and articles, A List Apart gives away CSS styles,
JavaScript, PHP and Perl scripts, XHTML markup techniques, and other
bits of "source code" for the use of its readers. You may freely copy,
paste, and modify any of this code for use on your own web projects
large or small, commercial or non-commercial. You need not ask
permission to do so. You need not credit ALA or its authors. It is our
gift to you.
"The right to use and modify CSS, XHTML, and JavaScript contained
herein applies does not apply to the CSS, XHTML, and JavaScript used
to design this magazine. The design of this magazine is copyrighted,
period."
This second paragraph also addresses the issue of copyright for the
layout and design of the Journal overall.
Andrew (waxin' Marxist-Leninist on the issue)
[1] http://www.alistapart.com/copyright/