Legal issue

 To:   >internet:chemistry #*at*# ccl.net
 From 100012.1163 #*at*# compuserve.com
 Subj: Re: Legal issues about Mosaic
 Dear Fellow Netters,
 Let me add my comments to the discussion. I am a publisher,
 however, the view expressed here may not be the official view
 of Springer-Verlag.
 Under the German Copyright law, we understand that an author
 implicitly accepts the conditions for publication by submitting
 a paper to the journal's editors. The publication contract is
 closed by the note of acception. From that moment, the author
 is bound to follow the conditions. While the author's right on
 his intellectual property remains with him, he transfers the
 right to print, publish, distribute and sell through-out the
 world the journal containing his contribution. This transfer is
 EXCLUSIVE for one year. After that time, the transfer is non-
 exclusive, i.e. the author may submit the paper to another
 publisher or distribute copies himself. Beware: not copies of
 the published contribution, as the form of the printed version
 remains the property of the publisher. The publisher's
 continues to have the original rights.
 There are many more agreements, usually negotiated by
 associations of scientists and publishers; there are
 international codes of practice, e.g. among STM publishers
 (Scientific, Technical, Medical). All that material fills
 volumes of a library and it would lead too far to explicit the
 whole beauty of International Copyright. To answer the
 questions raised earlier, the above might suffice.
 The question whether or not it is permitted to make the
 contents of a paper submitted or to be submitted to a journal
 publicly available is to my knowledge not finally answered. Let
 us take a practical approach, however. Making the result of an
 scientific publication publicly available is only one side of
 the coint. You as authors should also be aware that you want to
 document the priority of solving a problem. How can you do that
 on an internet server? Remember, we still live in a time where
 official documentation is bound to the printed form! Just
 imagine, a competitor by chance reads your innovative paper and
 submits the result to a journal. YOUR discovery will for ever
 be attributed to that plagiator.
 Legally speaking, submitting a paper to a journal after the
 contents are placed under Mosaic would constitute an act of
 fraud. The publisher might enter the contract without knowing
 you were no longer in the position to grant exclusive
 publication right. Do not be afraid: I do not think any
 publisher would prosecute you (at least not until a valiant
 publisher started a court suit to clarify the question).
 I would recommend that any author informs the publisher that he
 has placed the manuscript on a server at the time of
 submission. That would leave the choice to enter the contract
 with the author to the publisher. At least the publisher could
 not argue he entered the contract ignorant.
 Personally, I would grant an author the right to put his
 manuscript on a server, if he properly cites the journal. Of
 course, I strongly recommend to do this only AFTER publication
 (the priority issue, remember?). I would also suggest to add
 the server's address to the paper when receiving the proofs.
 Hope it helps you make the right decission.
 Sincerely,
 Dr. Rainer Stumpe
 Sciences Publisher
 Springer-Verlag
 Tiergartenstr. 17
 D-69121 Heidelberg
 Phone: +49-(0)6221-487 310
 Fax:   +49-(0)6221-487 366
 Internet: Stumpe #*at*# spint.compuserve.com