Information for Copyright Holders of Books (12/11/08)

As many of you might be aware, Google is currently scanning as many books as they can for their Google book project. Publishers and authors of the books still protected by copyright filed a law suit against Google for copyright infringement.  Recently, all parties to the law suit entered into a tentative settlement agreement. The agreement has to be approved by the United State District Court for the Southern District of New York and the Court has scheduled a hearing in June, 2009.

If you are an author who retained the copyright in your book(s), then you are potentially a member of the settlement class in this law suit. Between January 5, 2009 and February 27, 2009, you might receive a notice from legal counsel in the case that explains your rights and options under the settlement agreement.

Please read the notice carefully since there are time sensitive issues specified in the document. The settlement agreement can be viewed here. For general information about the agreement, members of the Purdue University community may contact Donna L. Ferullo, Director, Purdue University Copyright Office. For legal advice, please consult with your own personal attorney. For information about the Google book project, you may contact James L. Mullins, Dean of Libraries, or Beth McNeil, Associate Dean for Information Resources and Scholarly Communication.

Scholarly Communication Forum

The May 6th forum, "The (e)volving World of Scholarly Communication," offered a productive and interesting discussion of the issues relating to scholarly communication and promotion and tenure. Special thanks to our presenters, breakout session leaders, and panelists! Video of the morning sessions is now available on the forum page.

About Scholarly Communication

Scholarly communication is the process by which faculty members, students, researchers, and academics conduct their research, collect the information from that research into a publishable format (print or electronic), have their research reviewed, and distribute it. Various issues are associated with this process: the rising price of journal subscriptions; protecting and retaining author’s rights; use of alternative methods of publishing and the impact on tenure evaluation; and open access to research information.

A provost-appointed task force at Purdue is working to educate campus about these issues. This website is one step in that process. Please visit the links and read the news postings to learn more about scholarly communication issues and how they affect Purdue.

NIH Policy Compliance

This website will also serve as the central resource for information on complying with the NIH public access policy.

Additional NIH resources: