Category Archives: copyright

Acknowledging the public domain

Posted on April 30, 2008 by John Mark Ockerbloom

Many online publishers, particularly those that have been around for a while, now have large quantities of material that is in the public domain. The reasons vary: Some material was produced by US government agencies, such as NASA. Some material … Continue reading →

Posted in copyright, open access, sharing | 1 Comment

Coursepack sharing: An idea whose time has come?

Posted on April 16, 2008 by John Mark Ockerbloom

For years, there’s been an uneasy truce between publishers and universities about the inclusion of copyrighted materials in universities’ online course web sites and “courseware” systems. Publishers and universities have been arguing for years over when posting such materials for … Continue reading →

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The right to read, circa 1906

Posted on February 27, 2008 by John Mark Ockerbloom

For a few years in the early 1900s, some American book publishers came up with a brave new marketing paradigm. Instead of offering books for sale the old-fashioned way, they essentially decided to license them. Purchasers were warned of dire … Continue reading →

Posted in copyright, online books | 1 Comment

We call dibs! (or, the genius of the Harvard mandate)

Posted on February 22, 2008 by John Mark Ockerbloom

The Harvard Arts and Sciences faculty recently approved a resolution giving the University permission to make their scholarly articles available to the world at no charge. Here’s the official press release from Harvard, and here’s the text of the resolution, … Continue reading →

Posted in copyright, open access, publishing, sharing | 2 Comments

Improving the millions

Posted on February 20, 2008 by John Mark Ockerbloom

Michigan’s announcement earlier this month that they had over one million volumes from their collection digitized was widely hailed online. That million books includes both copyrighted and public domain content. According to Michigan’s John Wilkin, who I talked with shortly … Continue reading →

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Newbery book quick update

Posted on January 19, 2008 by John Mark Ockerbloom

Mary now has a list of the apparently unrenewed-copyright Newbery winners, plus a description of The Windy Hill, the Newbery honor book she put online, on her blog.

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New Newbery and Caldecott winners announced; Old Newbery winners go online

Posted on January 16, 2008 by John Mark Ockerbloom

One of the highlights of the American Library Association‘s Midwinter meeting (which just concluded here in Philadelphia) is the announcement of the winners of the Newbery Medal, the Caldecott Medal, and ALA’s other book prizes. The Newbery is one of … Continue reading →

Posted in awards, copyright, online books | 3 Comments

Copyright and Provenance: A paper and an example

Posted on January 4, 2008 by John Mark Ockerbloom

I’m happy to announce the publication of my paper “Copyright and Provenance: Some Practical Problems” in the latest issue of the IEEE Data Engineering Bulletin. I’ve also placed a copy in our institutional repository. [Provenance of the work: Created by … Continue reading →

Posted in copyright | 1 Comment

Public Domain Day gifts

Posted on January 1, 2008 by John Mark Ockerbloom

Quite the festive day today! All over the world, people who use the Gregorian calendar are celebrating New Year’s Day. Here in Philadelphia, it’s Mummer’s Parade day. And in my church, it’s a special day dedicated to Mary, the mother … Continue reading →

Posted in copyright, sharing | 17 Comments

Quick! While there’s still time!

Posted on December 19, 2007 by John Mark Ockerbloom

Folks interested in copyright information sharing may be interested in the following draft proposal for encoding copyright evidence in MARC records, the standard format used for library catalog records. It was published on December 17, just a couple of days … Continue reading →

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