Geographical Indication (GI) options for Ethiopian Coffee and Ghanaian Cocoa

Reflections on Open Scholarship Modalities and the Copyright Environment
publishing, online OA publishing and online OA self-archiving (Houghton,
2010). Open scholarship and OA approaches alter the traditional relationships
among the author, the publisher, the information manager or librarian and the
knowledge consumer. OA approaches throw into confusion the main doctrine
that has traditionally animated these relationships: copyright. There is now varied
opinion as to whether copyright law promotes or undermines the momentum
towards open scholarship.
The production of scholarly literature is at a sub-optimal level in Kenya.
It seems likely that Kenya’s dearth of scholarly publishing in some disciplines is
due, to some extent, to limitations in author development and book authorship,
and limitations in publishing and distribution (both off-line and online). It also
seems likely, as this chapter argues, that the emerging open-scholarship publishing
paradigm has yet to pick up momentum in Kenya partly because of the country’s
sub-optimal copyright environment.
Research problem
The emerging concepts of OA, open scholarship and alternative scholarly publishing
pose challenges not just to authors, publishers, information managers and
users, but also to policy-makers and related stakeholders. There are important
questions regarding how authors and publishers are to benefit economically in
an open scholarship context. And what role must copyright policy-makers and
technocrats and administrators play? The design of copyright and related rights
systems has traditionally been based on balancing two main theoretical perspectives:
(1) that copyright protection acts as an incentive to promote innovation and
creativity; and (2) that over-strong copyright protection will be an impediment
to free and open exchange of educational and entertainment materials, culture
and knowledge, thereby stifling creativity and development (Sihanya, 2013b). The
concepts of OA, open scholarship and alternative scholarly publishing serve to
intensify the tensions between these two perspectives.
I sought, through the research study outlined in this chapter, to take some
initial steps towards understanding the dynamics at the intersection of open
scholarship and copyright law, policy and practice in Kenya. The study sought to
understand how the emergence of open scholarship may be affecting relationships
among the stakeholders in the scholarly publishing process. The study also
sought to probe the extent to which Kenya’s copyright environment, in doctrinal
and/or practical terms, might benefit from review so as to better facilitate
open scholarship. (See Chapter 8 in this volume for another discussion of
copyright dynamics, in this case in relation to the output of Egypt’s independent
musicians.)
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