Now academics can copy with a good conscience ...

The IPKat has received a fascinating circular concerning the establishment of a set of Joint Guidelines on Copyright and Academic Research. In relevant part, it reads:

"... The collaborators are the Publishers Association, the leading trade organisation serving book, journal, and electronic publishers in the UK, and the British Academy, which speaks nationally for the humanities and social sciences - the discipline areas where copyright issues have caused most confusion.

Designed to clear a path through the complex jungle of copyright legislation, the Joint Guidelines set out to provide practical, objective guidance for the layman and woman, endorsed both from the perspective of the academic researcher and that of the publisher and copyright 'guardian'.

Authors, publishers and researchers frequently face daily uncertainty as to their respective rights and obligations regarding copyright. The Guidelines address the most frequent problems encountered, including fair dealing exemptions, the terms of protection for different types of materials, widespread confusion over copyright for material held in digital form, and difficult ownership issues, including the troublesome subject of "orphan works". ....

The IPKat will be looking carefully at these guidelines, since quite providentially they appear just a week before "Widows, orphans and absent fathers", a British Literary and Artistic Copyright Association seminar at which Jeremy discusses the legal issues and possible solutions arising from "orphan works" (for further details, click here). With a bit of luck and some judicious copying within the guidelines, he should find something to say ...

Anyone who wants further information aboout the guidelines should contact the British Academy's Tim Brassell (Director of External Relations) or Vivienne Hurley (Policy).