Presentation
Free and creative dissemination of ideas
In most countries, both in the North and South, copyright is protected by law. Recently, this protection has become even stronger due to the increased standardization of national legislation based on international intellectual property agreements.
A copyright gives its holder an exclusive right to use his or her work. Accordingly, any use of the protected work by others is, in principle, prohibited. As a result, prior permission from the author is needed to edit, copy, distribute, or translate the work.
The creation of exclusive rights for the author is aimed at creating an incentive to promote economic, social, and cultural development. Nonetheless, this protection can limit access to information and thus restrict freedom of expression and access to culture.
To face this growing risk, since 2003, a global movement to preserve the public interest has sought to promote a more flexible use of copyrights. In this context, the Creative Commons (see <http://creativecommons.org/>) has created a new type of license, through which the author can determine which uses to permit. Thus, instead of using the phrase "all rights reserved," authors can use "some rights reserved." Using the conveniences offered by the internet for distribution of materials, Creative Commons has also created a series of easily-identifiable symbols to indicate which types of uses are permitted by authors.
The Sur Journal promotes a South-South dialogue and a space for critical debate about human rights. The success of the Journal depends on its ability to reach the largest-possible number of people. Exclusivity and protection against non-commercial use directly undermines its goals.
Consequently, we have requested that the authors whose works are published in this issue of the Journal grant licenses permitting non-commercial reproduction of the articles, as long as proper attribution to the author is provided. The license is available at <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/deed.en>
Under this license, the articles can be reproduced for non-commercial purposes, the Journal can be copied in full, and the articles can be translated (generating what is called a derivative work).
We invite our readers to join this global movement permitting the free reproduction of academic works for non-commercial purposes. In this way, we are collectively contributing to an expansion of the space for public debate.
Creative Commons Attribution License (attribution 2.5):
We would like to thank Carolina Almeida Antunes Rossini <carolrossini@fgv.br> from the Center of Technology and Society of the Getúlio Vargas Foundation <www.direitorio.fgv.br/cts> for its collaboration in the adoption of Creative Commons by the Sur Journal.
We would also like to thank the following professors for their contribution in the selection of papers: Alejandro Garro, Bernardo Sorj, Christof Heyns, Laura Musa, Fiona Macaulay, Flavia Piovesan, Florian Hoffmann, Jeremy Sarkin, Malak Poppovic, Paul Chevigny, Richard Claude, Roberto Garretón, Usha Ramanathan, and Vinodh Jaichand.
Publication Dates
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Publication in this collection
08 July 2008 -
Date of issue
June 2006
