The Perils of Strong Copyright: The American Library Association and Free Culture

by Griffey, Jason Matthew

The American Library Association has been involved in an ongoing public relations campaign in order to attempt to convince the academic publishing world that the Open Access model is the correct one for academe. However, they have not followed suit with their own publications.

This paper is an exploration of this duality, set in a framework of the history of copyright and the Open Access and Free Culture movement. The history of copyright in the United States is presented with special emphasis to its relationship with libraries, and the philosophy of the Free Culture movement is examined in the same light. Specific ALA publications’ copyright policies are noted, and compared/contrasted with the public positions that the ALA has taken on Open Access.