On 21 July 2011 20:28, Stephen Bain stephen.bain@gmail.com wrote:
On Fri, Jul 22, 2011 at 3:03 AM, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
I have just suggested on internal-l that someone give JSTOR a call, giving them the chance to look good by releasing this stuff themselves. Given that US law is utterly and unambiguously against them having *any* control via copyright over this stuff, no matter what silly deals they may or may not have signed with the Royal Society.
Any action here would be in contract (for breach of the terms and conditions), not in copyright.
Indeed. But everyone would be happier if JSTOR stopped trying to enclose the public domain.
It would be nice for various purposes if this question didn't come up, but events are well ahead of any such blissful state of undecidedness. I expect quite a few uploads of public domain content from JSTOR in reasonably short order. The only thing is that every uploader needs to check every scan for JSTOR additions or manipulations that may be intended to claim a new copyright. (Though this would arguably involve misstatement on JSTOR's part that the document was actually what they claimed it was.)
- d.