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by thomasDE 3475 days ago
German researcher here.

There are multiple problems with the offer from VG Wort (which is the German association "representing" authors and publishers). One is that they raised the license fee. Another one is that they want to replace the current "flatrate" (where a university pays a fixed sum for the right to copy books or parts of books for education) with a individual billing concept. That means, lecturers have to report to administration for EACH part of a book or paper that they distribute. This model is not feasible as the administrative costs exceed the royalties which have to be payed for the copyright.

For this reasons, multiple virtual learning environments (which are used to distribute books and papers) in Germany might go offline in 2017 because the copyright situation is currently unclear.

More information (in German): https://netzpolitik.org/2016/deutsche-universitaeten-2017-im...
2 comments
kriro 3474 days ago
We got a university wide mail yesterday that nothing will change for us due to §52a because of the "settlement" with VG-Wort. I entered mild rage mode because it was written as "great news, everything is awesome" while my personal interpretation was WTF are you doing settling this...more like negotiating with terrorists.

Oh well, this boycott is very welcome. I'd also like to see a consortium that aggressively sues these publishers for breaking copyright. There's many cases of OA licensed material being illegally reused by closed journals etc. but usually it's just "please stop"...ok. At the same time the publishers bring down the law with full force for the most trivial stuff.

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lorenzhs 3475 days ago
Yes, but isn't the VG-Wort §52a UrhG thing a different issue? It's creating a whole lot of uncertainty right now, no doubt about that, but the article is about universities failing to reach an agreement with Elsevier. What you're talking about is a terrible new deal between VG Wort and the Kultusministerkonferenz about licensing for publication of any kind of protected material for education and research.
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thomasDE 3475 days ago
I think you are right. Thanks for correcting me. I thought the Elsevier thing was part of the deal with VG Wort as most mails which are currently going around in my university seem to combine both issues.
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