CIPIL Evening Seminar: 'Adding Copyright Reform to the Open Access Agenda'

Speaker: Professor John Willinsky, Stanford University  

Biography: John Willinsky is Professor, Simon Fraser University, and Khosla Family Professor Emeritus, Stanford University. Having founded the Public Knowledge Project in 1998, he has seen its open source Open Journal Systems (OJS) grow into the world’s most widely used journal platform. His dozen books include The Access Principle: The Case for Open Access to Research and Scholarship (MIT Press 2006) and The Intellectual Properties of Learning: A Prehistory from Saint Jerome to John Locke (Chicago 2017)

Abstract: Taking John Willinsky’s new (open access) book from MIT Press as a starting point, this talk considers how copyright may be a remediable problem in our pursuit of what we now agree is best for science, namely, open access. After all, copyright offers publishers no legal support for open access, while bringing the full weight of the law to bear on journal subscription payments. This talk will ask whether this is impeding the move to open access in a timely manner at a fair price; does it call for more than copyright workarounds, such as sharing final drafts? Willinsky will invite consideration of two legislative remedies. The first is strengthening copyright’s research exceptions and limitations; the second is introducing statutory licensing for research publications. He inquires after the international implications of such reforms, particularly amid current European copyright initiatives. He asks, ultimately, whether it is time for those interested in the progress of science to take up copyright reform.

This event is a hybrid event. To attend online you must register via Zoom.