Should Copyright of Academic Works Be Abolished? 349
Dr_Ken writes to mention recent coverage of a Harvard Cyber-Law study on Techdirt that analyzes the uses of copyright in the academic world. Some are claiming that the applications of copyright in academia are stifling and that we should perhaps go so far as to abolish copyright in the academic world entirely. "I've even heard of academics who had to redo pretty much the identical experiment because they couldn't even cite their own earlier results for fear of a copyright claim. It leads to wacky situations where academics either ignore the fact that the journals they published in hold the copyright on their work, or they're forced to jump through hoops to retain certain rights. That's bad for everyone."
Simple alternative (Score:3, Funny)
Make publicly funded research a work for hire, with the government getting the copyright (and then releasing it into the public domain), or at least demand Open Access publication.
Problem solved (but you might need some earplugs to shut out the screaming of the traditional publishers ;-)
Re:Why consider this for academics but not music? (Score:1, Funny)
I've heard your music, The paper is worth more than what is printed on it.