Speaker: Copyright Must Change
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Nae problem, lass ;-)
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A Tim O tweet brought my attention to a NYT article on the "operating system of democracy". NB that it's FREE.
I'm still of the opinion that more effort needs to be made to find some middle ground, that is to provide increntives for creatives and to encourage appropriate sharing. I think that article says in a pretty powerful way, that sharing is both important & cool.
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And what about the output of academics whose research is paid for by public institutions?
Good question.
I don't think it's quite as clear cut.
I'll declare that my better half works in scientific research for Universities, but I'm not sure this impacts my position unduly.I think it’s more about who reaps the benefit. For radio, it tends to be the listener. Under the free sharing scenario that Gio raises the question regarding, the likely beneficiaries of the outputs from academic research would be commercial entities, either those with the (economies of) scale to protect the valuable idea, or those with a close relationship (under the notion of first mover advantage) to the research group, who seem to be free of any requirement to share the benefits derived. Though none of this is to say that individuals could not benefit.
Uni research seems more often to be undertaken not-for-profit and valuable outcomes licensed to entities that have commercial objectives. The income derived (hopefully) gets utilised to perform more research rather than getting paid into anyone's back pocket (perhaps this is a naive assumption). I'm also aware that, yeah this means subsidising the activities of a few people that perhaps fail to make the grade in a more critical environment but also enables some pretty cool stuff to occur). From what I’ve seen of Academic Research, it’s no bed of roses.
So would requiring that any outputs of research be made freely available to all have impact? To me, I think it would destroy any licensing opportunities and opens the outcomes up to other entities that have commercial objectives closer to heart.
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I just asked the missus about the sharing of outcomes from publically funded research...as she has arrived to watch the cricket.
She says that the output of most research is made available when it's published....and adds "you just have to know what it means"....as she's getting published in the next few weeks, I'll take her at her word.
Which brings me back to some statements that Ben Goldacre made in a lecture I attended a month or 2 ago regarding articles published for peer review. Ben objects to much of the research being effectively hidden from the public by the barrier of the walled gardens that the review journals use. It was raised that this is really the domain of the expert, rather than the layperson, but in most cases the people with the relevant skills and time to review are recent graduates who haven't yet attached themselves to organisations that have access to the walled gardens and accordingly are free of any vested interests. (I'll see if I can make a transcript of Ben's comments....I did record it, but Ben requested that I not upload the audio on to the web).
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Thanks Jon. I agree with all of your observations, although the issues of licensing apply to only a portion of the academic field - less so in the humanities for instance. However, across the board this
Ben objects to much of the research being effectively hidden from the public by the barrier of the walled gardens that the review journals use.
Is I think a crucial barrier that we really need to get rid of as quickly as humanly possible. We need a lot more of these.
We also need to dismiss Haddin, and do it soon.
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Another Tim O' tweet brought to light some thoughts he had a while ago regarding e-books.
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Ben objects to much of the research being effectively hidden from the public by the barrier of the walled gardens that the review journals use.
Is I think a crucial barrier that we really need to get rid of as quickly as humanly possible. We need a lot more of these.
Gio, appreciate that you're walking the walk on this by having made your thesis freely available on line. It's been a source of some annoyance and frustration in the past to discover how few bother to do that.
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I put my honours dissertation online some years ago. Every year I get contacted by someone who was part of the events, or by the media wanting to use part of it or seek comment from me on some related story. It was a history of a local event in the 1990s though, so probably more relevant than some dissertations to the general public.
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Thanks Joe. It's a funny story though, and perhaps worth telling in the context of this thread.
I originally wanted to write the thesis as on online document, and Victoria couldn't deal with that crazy newfangled thing. Then some years later they came up with the idea of the open digital repository (which still couldn't accommodate a proper born-online hyperlink document, mind) and I thought cool, I'll publish it there - they were funding me, they could circulate it with their own imprint, it all made perfect sense.
So when I deposited the thesis in book form I also took the files to the electronic text centre, where they told me that they couldn't publish it because it had copyrighted material in it. Which isn't a problem for the PhD per se, educational purpose and all, but as soon as you publish to the public at large, it stops you dead.
I had anticipated that, of course, but I still naively figured I could take out the pictures I couldn't secure permission for in due course. Not so - they'll publish only the document so long as it is exactly the same as what was handed to the examiners.
So there's a lesson for people who are working on an MA or PhD and would like to publish it that way: clear your copyright permissions at the submission copy stage.
What is a lot more frustrating is that I am trying to continue my research - again, through a blog, so on a free-for-all basis - and I can't get access to the electronic databases through the university. And I'm willing to pay for it, mind. But there simply is no provision for alumni to do that, even getting a borrower's card for the books and print journals was something I was able to do only thanks to a newly installed and sympathetic head librarian. But most* of the stuff I need can only be obtained electronically.
(*Although by no means all - I got the Christen Servant book out yesterday. Thanks for that, it looks great.)
On the subject of people not bothering to put their theses online, I hope it will change, but yes, I've spoken to a lot of my peers about it and they most of them seem to have some sort of reservation or other. I think the (misguided, IMHO) fear that the material will be misappopriated still exists.
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Wait: did I say it was a funny story? I meant "boring".
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And then, of course, I would instantly become a copyright fascist
though that does illustrate nice the issue of perspective and personal investment.
it's pretty easy to lobby for free media when its not your media and you have nothing to lose, or in the case of purchasing the flying nun catalogue nothing to recoup in your investment/costs
It becomes a completely different scenario when you see the real time and or money involved in the creation. -
Can we at least agree it's not a one size fits all type deal?
It's apparent that there is a bunch of stuff that there is value in providing incentives to protect, just as there is another bunch of stuff that there should be shared in the right circumstances (eg published outputs from publically funded research) and even must be shared (eg public safety).
Where does this leave parody and satire?
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Where does this leave parody and satire?
Still out in the cold, at the moment. MED were talking about releasing a discussion paper on this in September last year but never got around to it. They have flagged to the new Minister that Cabinet approval is required to release it, and that the decision was required by December 2008, but the Minister may have disagreed.
There's a note in the Briefing to the Incoming Minister of Commerce about it:
Decide whether to seek Cabinet approval to release a discussion document on parody and satire as exceptions to copyright infringement
http://www.med.govt.nz/templates/MultipageDocumentPage____40227.aspx
The Copyright Council appears to have read it (so that makes 2 of us ;-) - I blogged about BIMs last week with specific reference to ACTA)
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3410,
That clearer?
Yep. Cheers.
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Wait: did I say it was a funny story? I meant "boring".
Not at all, thanks for that. While it's not uncommon - tho not as common as it should be - for theses to be made available in pdf form from within a university's own intranet/whatever, yours is particularly interesting because of the fair use picture issues, and because it's been posted as being freely accessible 'in the wild'.
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though that does illustrate nice the issue of perspective and personal investment.
Yeah. That Doledrums site is amazing.
Part of me is thinking: ummm, want that, that, and that, wow, amazing, theres- and all that stuff I've still got on vinyl, but could never be arsed making digital copies of- then, hmmm, encountering recordings of mates, and even something where I paid for most of the recording costs.
I don't really mind. Mildly amused that anyone would bother. It seems like a lot of very genuine fan-love and enthusiasm.
But, y'know, it'd be nice if they asked. -
Mildly amused that anyone would bother.
there goes that kiwi self depreciation.
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there goes that kiwi self depreciation.
How long is he amortizing himself?
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Good lord. I was taking the piss because I thought you meant this
I had not known there was such a term...
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you use the word amortizing in everyday conversation?
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Every time I talk to a financial adviser about my mortgage or a capital purchase, yes.
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Which, admittedly, I don't do every day...
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But if talking about depreciation, yes.
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James Boyle about free culture on Radio NZ (27 mins stream, 9.2Mb download).
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