Back-of-the-Envelope Math on What Payouts We May See in the Bartz v. Anthropic Settlement
Now that the Bartz settlement has passed some initial judicial hurdles and is moving along, with important deadlines approaching (opt-out […]
Contractual Override: How Private Contracts Undermine the Goals of the Copyright Act for Libraries and Researchers, and What We Can Do About It
We’ve written before about the use of contracts limiting author’s access to fair use, including how publisher contracts restrict innovation
When Your Publisher Isn’t the Dream Partner You Hoped For — What Counts as Material Breach of a Publishing Agreement?
This is a guest post by Hana Khan-Tareen, who is a Legal Research Fellow at Georgetown University Law Center. We appreciate her insight on how authors can best protect their rights.
The NIH Public Access Policy: Implementation and Feedback
The NIH Public Access Policy is in effect as of July 1, 2025. In response, Authors Alliance and SPARC have created a form to collect information about challenges or questions faced by authors, librarians and their institutions in complying with the roll out of new public access policies by federal grant making agencies in compliance with the OSTP directive to make federally funded research freely available to the public immediately upon publication.
Superman’s Copyright Saga
The creators of Superman sold their rights for just $130 in 1938, igniting decades of lawsuits over ownership and fair treatment. Now, the battle continues as Shuster’s heir claims to hold certain foreign rights…
Independent Publisher’s Lawsuit Against Audible Fails, Highlighting Challenges to Receive Fair Streaming Compensation
Audible has a history of relying on ambiguous contractual terms to reduce author payouts. Despite Audible’s track record, the courts were unsympathetic to Teri Woods’ grievances.
Authors Alliance and SPARC Supporting Legal Pathways to Open Access for Scholarly Works
Authors Alliance and SPARC are excited to announce a new collaboration to address critical legal issues surrounding open access to
Read your open access publishing agreements, or: how you might accidentally give Elsevier or Wiley the exclusive right to profit from your OA article
Reading publishing agreements–even for short academic articles–can be extremely time consuming. For many academic publishers, you’ll find an array of
Shaping Your Publication Contract to Meet Your Goals: Part 2
Book publication contracts deserve careful attention because their terms control the rights and obligations of authors and publishers for the
Shaping Your Publication Contract to Meet Your Goals: Part 1
Book publication contracts deserve careful attention because their terms control the rights and obligations of authors and publishers for the