Categories
Copyright

Open Access in the Humanities and Social Sciences

I recently attended a workshop for law researchers at my university, the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), in which the majority of the attendees were actual academics from the law school. The objective of the workshop was to clarify the open access policies of research funding bodies in the UK, namely HEFCE and RCUK. I have to admit even though I have been to numerous open access workshops and conferences, this was the first time I attend an event where people were not  interested in open access and merely saw it as another hassle that they have to go through to get their job done. I guess it is not realistic to think that everyone would be a supporter of the open access movement, but I was really surprised how the law academics, especially those at SOAS, who teach and study justice and inequality in Asia and Africa, have no interest in open access at all and whether or not what they write can be read by the people in the countries they research.
It was difficult not to compare the vibe I felt in SOAS with the vibe at OpenCon, a conference I was very fortunate to attend just a few weeks before. It is certainly not fair to generalise, but the majority of the attendees and speakers at OpenCon came from STEM fields, there were very few speakers from a legal background, and definitely there were no keynote speakers who were law professors. OpenCon was a conference for people who already knew what open access is, believed in it, and came to share experiences and strategies for pushing it further. There were so many inspirational speakers, such as Mike Eisen and Erin McKiernan, who shared their stories of how they took open access as a matter of principle even though it did not seem as a wise career move, but they persevered and succeeded.

Even though the majority of the speakers and attendees were from the STEM fields, one session at OpenCon showcased a major open access developments from the area of humanities, namely, the launch of the Open Library of the Humanities. This project that is being led by Paul Even and focuses on the academic literature in the humanities. It creates a new business model for publishing open access journals that does not require end users to pay subscription fees or authors to pay article processing charges. This development is important because the current most common open access approach attempts to remove the barriers of access to academic literature by removing subscription fees from readers and requiring the author to pay a fee to have his or her accepted article published in the journal. The Open Library of Humanities relies on partnerships with libraries to fund a collective of journals through a library subsidy system in which each library can pay a few hundred dollars every year to support the publication of the open access articles published by the Open Library of the Humanities. As more libraries join the system, the contribution required to support the Open Library of the Humanities becomes smaller into a tiny fraction of what each library currently pays for subscription fees to commercial electronic journal databases.

The Open Library of Humanities officially launched in September 2015, but it already has the potential of being a major game changer in the publication of open access academic literature in the humanities. It does not publish any law journals yet, but hopefully someone can propose someone to them soon.

Categories
Copyright

Copyright Term in the Arab World Infographic

Copyright Term in the Arab World Infographic

Categories
Copyright

DRM and the Balance of Copyright Law in Oman

Like all copyright laws around the world, the Omani copyright law is meant to draw a balance between the ability of the authors to make a living out of their craft on the one hand and the right of members of society have a fair and reasonable opportunity to access and use cultural works.

Categories
Copyright

Understanding Copyright Term in the Arab World

A post I’ve written for GlobalVoices in collaboration with Sadeek Hasna. Check it out here.

Categories
Copyright Cybercrime Privacy

Arab Treaty on Combating Cybercrime

The Arab Treaty on Combating Cybercrime [الاتفاقية العربية لمكافحة جرائم تقنية المعلومات] was ratified by Oman earlier this month. This treaty is an Arab League international agreement that was adopted in December 2010 and entered into force in February 2014. It appears that the ratified members of this treaty at the moment are Jordan, UAE, Sudan, Iraq, Palestine, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman.
The main objectives of the treaty are to create an obligation on its members to implement in their national legislation provisions that criminalise a set of online offenses as well as put procedural rules in place to facilitate the prosecution of cybercrimes and the collection of digital evidence. The treaty also has a section for facilitating the cooperation between its members in dealing with transnational cybercrimes.

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Copyright

Djibouti: Copyright Country Profile

Current Copyright Law:

  • Law No. 154/AN/06 of July 23, 2006, on the Protection of Copyright and Neighboring Rights [Loi n°154/AN/06 du 23 juillet 2006 relative à la protection du droit d’auteur et du droit voisin]: French Text, English Text*

Previous Copyright Law:

  • Law No. 114/AN/96/3e L on the Protection of Copyright [Loi n°114/AN/96/3e L relatif à la protection du droit d’auteur]: French Text, English Text*
  •  Order of February 7, 1963, relating to Law 57-­298 of March 11, 1957, on Literary and Artistic Property [loi 57-298 du 11 mars 1957 sur la djibouti propriété littéraire et artistique]: Text Not Available.

*Translation by WIPO.

Photo credits: “Aube dorée” by Olivier ROUX – CC BY-NC 2.0

Categories
Copyright

Comoros: Copyright Country Profile

Current Copyright Law:

  • Literary and Artistic Property Law of 1957: French Text.*

*Note: This law was passed during the French colonization of Comoros, and it is not clear if this law is in force.

Photo credits: “Indian Ocean Sunset” by David Stanley – CC BY 2.0

Categories
Copyright

Three Exceptions I Wish Omani Copyright Law Had

Like the majority of countries around the world, Oman does not have a concept of “fair use” in its copyright law. The default position under copyright law is that any use of a copyrighted work requires the prior permission of the author, even if that use is private, non-commercial, or does not affect the interests of the author. To ensure that the rights of the author do not restrict the ability of society to enjoy culture and exercise certain fundamental rights, such as freedom of expression, copyright law permits the public to use copyrighted works in certain circumstances without the need to acquire the permission of the author.

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Copyright

Tunisia: Copyright Country Profile

Current Copyright Law:

  • Law No. 33 of 2009 Concerning the Amendment of Law No. 36 of 1994 Concerning Literary and Artistic Property [قانون عدد ٣٣ لسنة ٢٠٠٩ مؤرخ في ٢٣ جوان ٢٠٠٩ يتعلق بتنقيح وإتمام القانون عدد ٣٦ لسنة ١٩٩٤ المؤرخ في ٢٤ فيفري ١٩٩٤ المتعلق بالملكية الفكرية والفنية]: Arabic Text.
  • Law No. 36 of 1994 Concerning Literary and Artistic Property [قانون عدد ٣٦ لسنة ١٩٩٤ مؤرخ في ٢٤ فيفري ١٩٩٤ يتعلق بالملكية الأدبية والفنية]: Arabic Text.

Previous Copyright Laws:

  • Law No. 3 of 1967 Concerning the Amendment of Law No. 12 of 1966 Concerning Literary and Artistic Property [قانون عدد ٣ لسنة ١٩٦٧ مؤرخ في ٤ جانفي ١٩٦٧ يتعلق بتنقيح القانون عدد ١٢ لسنة ١٩٦٦ المؤرخ في ١٤ فيفري ١٩٦٦ المتعلق بالملكية الأدبية والفنية]: Arabic Text.
  • Law No. 12 of 1966 Concerning Literary and Artistic Property [قانون عدد ١٢ لسنة ١٩٦٦ المؤرخ في ١٤ فيفري ١٩٦٦ يتعلق بالملكية الأدبية والفنية]: Arabic Text.

Note: Tunisia inherited from France the Tunisian Artistic and Literary Property Law of 1889 during its time as a French colony.

Categories
Copyright

Morocco: Copyright Country Profile

Current Copyright Law:

  • Law No. 2-00 of 2000 Relating to Copyright and Neighbouring Rights (Includes 2006 and 2014 Amendments) [قانون رقم ٢,٠٠ يتعلق بحقوق المؤلف والحقوق المجاورة]: Arabic Text.

Previous Copyright Laws:

  • Dahir Sharif No. 1.69.135 of 1970 Concerning the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works [ظهير شريف رقم ١.٦٩.١٣٥ بتاريخ ٢٥ جمادى الأول ١٣٩٠ (٢٩ يوليوز ١٩٧٠) بشأن حماية المؤلفات الأدبية والفنية]: Arabic Text.
  • Dahir Sharif Issued on 21 Chabaan 1334 (23 June 1916) Concerning the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works [الظهير الشريف الصادر في ٢١ شعبان ١٣٣٤ (٢٣ يونيه ١٩١٦) بشأن حماية المؤلفات الأدبية والفنية]: Not Available.

Photo credits: “Port” by Délirante bestiole – CC-BY 2.0