On Thu, 15 Nov 2001, Joseph Pietro Riolo wrote: > the publisher who is the new copyright holder can > prevent any more reproduction of the copyrighted work that it now owns. > So, right after the moment when the transfer is completed, the copyright > holder can stop anyone who has the copy before the agreement is signed > from making more copies and distributing them. > > While it is nearly impossible to find all unauthorized copies on > the Internet, the copyright holder always will have the legal means to > sue individuals for copyright infringement. For example, if a publisher > finds out that an individual copies a copyrighted work on a self-archiving > site without a permission from the publisher (after the transfer is > completed), the publisher can sue that individual for copyright > infringement and the owner of self-archiving site for contributing to > the copyright infringement. > > In order for your approach to work, an author must not transfer > his whole copyright to anyone else any time in the future.
Incorrect. You have nearly answered your own question: It is not "nearly impossible to find all unauthorized copies on the Internet," it is in practise impossible, and interminable. But the copyright holder (concerned about text-theft) is free to try going after them all. The author (who welcomes text-theft and care only about preventing authorship-theft) can serenely abstain from the chase. Laws that made sense in the Gutenberg era but became unenforcable in the PostGutenberg era are not worth talking about. See: www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/0708.html http://www.nih.gov/about/director/ebiomed/com0530.htm But my original statement stands: Publicly self-archive online first, then sign the copyright transfer form and you have committed no crime. Stevan Harnad