[Lingtyp] European Commission on authorship transfer agreements

[Sebastian Nordhoff]

On 02.01.2016 02:42, Johanna NICHOLS wrote:
> Happy New Year to all!  I'm picking up the thread begun by Sebastian
> Nordhoff a couple of weeks ago, concerning journal publication, ownership
> of copyright, ownership of journal title, etc.  For some reason I can't
> reply to that thread so I'm starting it up again with the same subject
> header.  (The last posting was from Martin Haspelmath, on Dec. 22.)
>  ...
> Concerning ownership of the journal and title and copyright, the 1997
> agreement we signed with De Gruyter Mouton (then Mouton de Gruyter) says
> nothing about these matters.  ALT has never signed ownership of the journal
> or the title or the copyright over to anyone.  We assume we own them, but
> we're not legal experts.

Dear Johanna,
thanks for this clarification. Good to hear that the association still 
owns the name.
I agree that DG has provided good service to our field. My concern, 
however, is more general. If a brand is owned by a for-profit company, 
eventually that company will try to make profit off that brand. There is 
nothing wrong with that: that's essentially the raison d'être of a company.
Even if right now, typologists appear to fare well with DG, this should 
not lure them into giving up their brand.
DG could be sold, Mouton could be sold, the DG board could change, DG 
could sell the brand to another, more aggressive company. These are 
risks one has to consider.
Best wishes
Sebastian




>
> Johanna Nichols
>
>
>
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