Fair Use for Nonfiction Authors

The Authors Alliance guide to Fair Use for Nonfiction Authors is designed to empower authors to exercise their right to use source materials to further their research and writing goals by helping them to make confident fair use decisions. The guide addresses three common situations faced by nonfiction authors in which fair use may apply: 1) criticizing, discussing, or commenting on copyrighted material; 2) using copyrighted material to support a point made in the author’s work; and 3) using copyrighted material for non-consumptive research. It also addresses the most frequently asked questions about fair use and clears up some common misconceptions about when it might apply

Understanding Open Access

Understanding Open Access: When, Why & How to Make Your Work Openly Accessible provides a scholarly author-oriented look at the ins and outs of open access publishing. The guide addresses common concerns about what “open access” means, how institutional and funder open access policies work, and why authors might consider making their works openly accessible online. It also provides information on how to openly license works, how to tailor licensing permissions, and where authors can consider making their open access works available. The guide includes real-life strategies that authors can use to work with publishers, institutions, and funders to make their works available on the terms most consistent with their dissemination goals

Understanding Rights Reversion

Are you an author who would like to increase your book’s availability? Have you already entered into a publishing agreement for your book? If you answered yes to both of these questions, then read on! Understanding Rights Reversion addresses the needs of authors who wish to make their works available to a wider audience in ways that may be prohibited by the terms of their existing publishing agreements. For example, this guide will help authors who want to do things like bring their out-of-print books back into print; publish digital versions of their books; make their books openly accessible; publish updated editions of their books; and create new works derived from their books (e.g., translations, audio editions, cinematic adaptions, etc.). Authors who consult this guide will be better informed about strategies for making their books more available

UNDERSTANDING RIGHTS REVERSION: When, Why, & How to Regain Copyright and Make Your Book More Available

Are you an author who would like to increase your book’s availability? Have you already entered into a publishing agreement for your book? If you answered “yes” to both of these questions, then read on! This guide addresses the needs of authors who wish to make their works available to a wider audience in ways that may be prohibited by the terms of their existing publishing agreements. For example, this guide will help authors who want to do things like: • Bring their out-of-print books back into print • Publish digital versions of their books • Make their books openly accessible • Publish updated editions of their books • Create new works derived from their books (e.g., translations, audio editions, cinematic adaptions, etc.) • And much more. This guide addresses common issues facing all authors who seek to increase their books’ availability, regardless of whether an author has a literary agent. However, authors with agents may be restricted by the terms of their agency agreements from approaching their publishers directly—or they may prefer to have their agents speak with their publishers on their behalf. Regardless of what an agent-author contract might stipulate, authors who consult this guide will be better informed about strategies for making their books more available. WHAT IS THIS GUIDE? This guide is the product of extensive interviews with authors, publishers, and literary agents who shared their perspectives on reverting rights, the author-publisher relationship, and keeping books available in today’s publishing environment. This guide compiles information, strategies, and examples gleaned from these interviews to empower authors to take an active role in increasing their books’ availability. For some authors, this may mean exercising or negotiating rights of reversion; for other authors, it may mean securing their publishers’ permission to make their books available in the ways that they want, or working with their publishers to revive their books’ availability

Notice and Takedown: Online Service Provider and Rightsholder Accounts of Everyday Practice

Section 512 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act established both "safe harbors" from liability for online service providers and the well-known "notice and takedown" process for removing online infringements of copyrighted material. In the ensuing two decades, the notice and takedown process has become a primary tool for raising and resolving copyright disputes in the United States. But despite its influence, there is little empirical research describing § 512's operation or its effectiveness. This article digests findings from a qualitative study, reported fully in the three-study report, Notice and Takedown in Everyday Practice (available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2755628) and peer-reviewed here, that helps fill this gap. Through detailed surveys and interviews with nearly three dozen respondents, we provide the first detailed account of how § 512 is implemented and experienced by online service providers and large rightsholders. All respondents agreed that the § 512 safe harbors and the ability to take down infringing material remain fundamental. But the online copyright enforcement ecosystem is also highly diverse, and all participants face challenges. The findings suggest that the notice and takedown system is important, under strain, and that there is no "one size fits all" approach to improving it. Based on the findings, we suggest a variety of best practices and limited legal reforms

Understanding open access: when, why, and how to make your work openly accessible

This book provides the most up-to-date information about when, why, and how to make your work openly accessible.Its goal is to encourage authors to consider open access publishing by addressing common questions and concerns and by providing real-life strategies and tools that authors can use to work with publishers, institutions, and funders to make their works more widely accessible to all. The advent of global digital networks now provides authors who write to be read with exciting new options for communicating their ideas broadly. One of these options is open access. The basic idea of open access is that it makes copyrightable works available without all of the access barriers associated with the “all rights reserved” model. These can take the form of price barriers and permission barriers. Open access typically comes in two forms. What has come to be known as gratis open access is the practice of making a work available online  free of charge (also called public access). The term libre open access (also called full open access) refers to the practice of making a work available online free of charge and with some additional reuse rights, typically granted through a Creative Commons license. Gratis open access removes price barriers, whereas libre open access additionally removes at least some permission barriers, allowing users to copy, redistribute, and/or adapt a work. Open access contrasts with more traditional models of restricted-access publishing in which copies of works are made directly available only to paying customers. Authors who are interested in increasing access to their works may want to understand whether eliminating cost and permissions barriers is a good option for them and, if so, how they might release their works under open access terms. Other authors may be required by their employer or funding agency to comply with an open access policy. Still other authors may be skeptical about whether open access is compatible with their publication goals—including rigorous peer review, prestige, or monetary compensation—and want to learn more