Re: Do PrePrints and PostPrints Need a Copyright Licence?

From: Charles Oppenheim <C.Oppenheim_at_LBORO.AC.UK>
Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2005 15:55:56 +0100

 Steve Hitchcock stated:

> Someone with more legal expertise than me could comment on whether it is
> correct to say that the copyright arrangement with a publisher *does not*
> affect the existing (e.g. CC) licences relating to the (Pr)ePrint. Since
> it
> is likely to be more restrictive then it seems to undermine the point of
> any prior licence.

If I offer something under a CC licence and then subsequently agree to a
more restrictive publisher's licence, I have set up an incompatibility.
It's equivalent to promising to sell my car to one person and later on
promising to sell the car to another person. The earlier licence over-rides
the second. In other words, any subsequent more restrictive licence with a
publisher would have no validity and would be unenforceable by the
publisher. Mind you, the publisher would be perfectly entitled to be
annoyed with the author, and may refuse to publish the article and/or
refuse to ever have dealings with that author again in the future.

Charles
Received on Tue Oct 18 2005 - 16:15:19 BST