Covington & Burling LLP litigators Simon J. Frankel and Shannon M. Nestor have written an interesting 18-page overview report
“Opening the Door: How Faculty Authors Can Implement an Open Access Policy at Their Institutions”
examining the legal issues as to open access policies.
The report looks at:
- basic copyright matters
- non-exclusive licenses
- copyright transfers
- the “work for hire” (WFH or “work made for hire”) doctrine of copyright law
It concludes with 5 criteria for an effective license.
The authors state —
“For the licensing portion of an open-access policy, it is recommended that an institution adopt a
license, in writing and signed by each faculty author, that contains the following five criteria:
- non-exclusive
- irrevocable
- worldwide
- perpetual, and
- non-commercial.”
