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Open Access-Workshop am Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin

In welchem Verhältnis stehen die Creative Commons-Lizenzen und Open Access Publishing in der Wissenschaft? Dieser Frage widmet sich heute ein Workshop beim Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, zu dem ich eingeladen bin. Eine hervorragende Gelegenheit, sich über den Stand der Diskussion zu informieren. Und: Es gibt ein offenes WLAN, d.h. ich kann zumindest ein wenig live bloggen. Viel Zeit wird dafür nicht sein, aber immerhin.

Dass Irene Pakuscher, Regierungsdirektorin im Bundesministerium der Justiz, gerade einen Exkurs hält zur Geschichte des Urheberrechts, gibt mir die Gelegenheit, so viel wie möglich aus der morgendlichen Sitzung einzufügen. Die Tagung findet in Englischer Sprache statt, daher gibt's hier auch nur Englisch. Wenn ich erst alles übersetzen muss, wird's nie was.

Lawrence Lessig commented on an eMail he received from scholar and Open Access activist Stevan Harnad. Lessig says that Harnad in his argument makes a mistake in saying that if a scientist wants his work to be accessible, he can just put it on the web and the case is settled. This is not good enough, says Lessig, because users would still need to negotiate the rights associated with the work, which is the core of the problem. So what's necessary is a legal infrastructure for Open Access. For scientists it's easier to publish under CC licences because they don't expect to be compensated in a way artists expect to be compensated. What CC does is provide a simple interface for authors they can understand and work with.

Jürgen Renn, Direktor des Max-Planck-Instituts für Wissenschaftsgeschichte und Mitveranstalter der Tagung, sprach von einer major phase of transition in publishing – either to Open Access or commercial publishers. In his opinion, it is unlikely that there wil be an intermediate phase. Open Access is an economic decision. These decisions are made by major publishers and major science organisations, and we’ll have to go for one or the other, there’s no compromise. That’s why there is such a sense of urgency in this debate. The Berlin Declaration, which was not just signed by individuals, but major science organisations, defined their commitment that includes the changing of contracts with collaborators – a major success. But Open Access cannot be an individual or even institutional decision, but it is a policy decision, and a global decision. What’s more: The infrastructure is costly – we can’t spend ressources twice: either one way or the other.

Posted by Matthias Spielkamp at 17.06.04 11:04