국가과학기술정보서비스(NTIS) 연구보고서 서비스 제공에 관련된 법적 문제점에 대한 검토 - 학술·과학기술·정책연구 등에 대한 일반 국민의 접근 및 이용 활성화에 관한 법률(안) 제안 및 검토를 중심으로 -

Abstract

Creating cultural and economic value is anticipated for scientific and technological works and scholarly works in today’s knowledge information society. Public works created by government-financed institutions should allow free access and use by the general public unless doing so would be inconsistent with intellectual property laws or pose threat to national security. Along with rising social needs, open access movement with regards to academic information is gradually gaining force. The Korean government has provided science and technology information services such as National Digital Science Library(NDSL) and National Science & Technology Information Service(NTIS) in order to promote effectiveness of investment on and management of R&D projects. The said services help prevent investment overlaps in planning stage or through project revision or evaluation process and promote use of R&D-related information. The rise and spread of new media such as smart phones and tablet PCs calls for a higher level of electronic information service. When government-financed institutions publish research papers from their national R&D projects via science and technology information service, protecting user’s rights as well as the author’s is the core principle and top priority of the services. Research papers published by government-funded institutions must be available for the general public to promote public interest, unless there is a special circumstance that interferes with intellectual property rights or research security. Unfortunately, relevant laws provide little guidance on the rights relating to public works, eventually limiting fair use by the public. Hence, the need arises for legal infrastructure that will provide advanced system for access to research papers and use of science and technology information service, provided that they fall within the realm of public works. Research outcomes of government-financed institutions shall belong to this category, for they were funded by taxpayers after all. With regards to legislative principles and points of improvement, the followings must be considered. First, draft standard contract and guidelines on the scope of the subjects must be provided based on the principle of private autonomy. Second, an act, or acts, must be enacted separately from the current Copyright Act. Ways to incorporate open access policy in copyright laws must be examined. Taking the hint from German legislation, the authors of scholarly works such as research paper by government-financed institutions may be given the right to derivative use of the works. The draft bill for an act entitled “Act on Promotion of Public Access and Use of Scholarly Research and Scientific and Technological Research,” which is to incorporate all detailed regulations on the subject, must be passed into law. Nearly all research projects by government-financed institutions are governed by the Regulations on National R&D Projects. Moreover, provisions on science and technology information service and research papers are generally well implemented in the system. Considering the status quo, further legislation in accordance with the current copyright law should be the next step forward. In the long run, provisions stipulating on the subject should be properly revised and the Regulations on National R&D Projects must be raised to the status of a statute, and the statute shall be shaped to have organic relation with the clauses on free use of and open access to public works under the Copyright Act.