LEGAL ISSUES FOR INSTITUTIONAL REPOSITORIES : AN OVERVIEW Frederick J. Friend JISC Scholarly Communication Consultant Honorary Director Scholarly Communication UCL

LEGAL RELATIONSHIPS Institutional repository managers cannot escape the law! The secret is to treat the law as a friend to be embraced rather than as an enemy to be kept at a distance Good legal relationships can make life easier and avoid problems down the road Repositories need to have legal relationships with every stakeholder: the university, each depositing author, third-party content owners, and users of content Most legal issues are also policy issues for repositories Get the policies right and the legal framework will fall into place

LEGAL RELATIONSHIP WITH THE UNIVERSITY Where does the repository sit within the university structure? Does it sit within the library or is it a free-standing organization? Is there a clear management structure so that decisions can be owned (and not disowned) by the university? Is the repository covered by the university insurance policy against claims, e.g. a claim by a publisher for infringement of copyright? If some repository funding comes from a third party – e.g. JISC – do the financial structures allow for accountability to a third party? Does the repository have a business plan, including contingency planning if funding is withdrawn? None of these points need present a problem if they are clear from the start and the repository is embedded into university structures and policies

LEGAL RELATIONSHIP WITH EACH DEPOSITING AUTHOR Each author is important (it only takes one well-known author to claim that her/his work has been stolen by a repository for the repositorys reputation to suffer) If there is a university policy mandating repository deposit this lifts some of the responsibility from the repository manager Each repository should have its own conditions of deposit document covering issues such as copyright on third-party content (N.B. this should not be worded so as to scare authors off from depositing) As this is a two-way relationship repository managers also have a responsibility to authors – e.g. to provide download statistics on demand or as a regular service A sound legal relationship with authors depends on sound policies set by the university and by the repository

LEGAL RELATIONSHIP WITH THIRD PARTY CONTENT- OWNERS If third party is a publisher, has the publisher agreed to repository deposit, either of the entire content or of part of the content of which the publisher holds the copyright? RoMEO will help but will not cover every eventuality. The third party could be an individual, such as a photographer whose work is included in the content deposited The third party could be an agency, such as the Ordnance Survey Sensible caution is advisable but no need to be over-cautious Good defence to be able to say that copyright policies and procedures (e.g. take-down arrangements) are in place Having policies in place can take some of the hassle out of copyright management

LEGAL RELATIONSHIP WITH USERS OF CONTENT Most users will not be aware of legal niceties such as the right to copy content, and some may not even care Repository managers have a responsibility to make users aware of legal restrictions upon use but need to do so in simple, brief statements rather than complex contractual documents Creative Commons licences are user-friendly Persuading authors to use the JISC/SURF Licence to Publish (or equivalent) will make those same individuals more aware of copyright issues as users of content Having a good university copyright policy and publicising it will help to raise users awareness of legal issues in using repository content Good policies make life easier for users of repository content