Motion US 07/08 - 17 Initiative to protect the rights of faculty authors of scholarly publications.

Whereas, trends in scholarly publishing make it increasingly important for faculty to consider copyright issues and rights of the authors of scholarly publications

Moved, that the University of Oregon University Senate:


Financial impact: There is no direct financial impact to this motion. However, widespread adoption of the recommendations could protect faculty from expensive litigation, allow faculty to re-use their own works in teaching without paying royalties, and potentially make faculty publications more widely available, for example in the Scholars' Bank institutional repository.

Statement of Need: This resolution addresses trends in the use of scholarship driven by new technology: for example, it is common practice to post a copy of one's publications on a public website or extract portions for use in a class, but those practices violate the terms of most traditional copyright transfer agreements. More generally, it addresses an increasingly pressing issue, the commercialization of scholarly publishing, the increasing treatment of knowledge as property to be controlled rather than widely disseminated, and the increasing willingness of copyright holders ranging from RIAA to journal publishers to threaten to sue academics for copyright infringement.

In 2001, Senate resolution US00/01-5 endorsed a University Library Committee recommendation to:


  • Passed at the 13 February 2008 meeting of the UO Senate.
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