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

Reflections on Open Scholarship Modalities and the Copyright Environment
Assignments and licensing of scholarly works
Kenya’s Copyright Act confers on the first owner of copyright certain exclusive
economic rights over the exploitation of the work (Sect. 26 of the Act); unless
there is evidence that the work should belong to the employer or commissioner
(Sect. 31 of the Act). Only a few scholars have the financial ability, economic acumen
or the willingness to undertake the process of scholarly publication and
communication, i.e. printing and selling their own books and articles. Authors of
books have traditionally found it advantageous in terms of the balance between
the financial reward and the degree of risk involved to approach well-established
publishers who then arrange for the printing, marketing and sale of the books or
the story (cf. Chakava, 1996). The publisher is also better placed to monitor and
take legal action against persons infringing the copyright.
Section 33 of the Kenya Copyright Act gives scholars other ways of exploiting
their works, principally through assignment and licensing. Section 33(1) provides
that copyright shall be transmissible by assignment, by licence, by testamentary
disposition or by operation of law as movable property.
Copyright and open scholarship
The emergence of open scholarship and alternative publishing has upset the traditional
relationship between the following stakeholders in the scholarship process:
authors, peer reviewers or referees, research funders, publishers and libraries
and archives as well as other repositories. The traditional interests and models
of economic and non-economic rewards accruing to these parties have changed
and thereby significantly altered the nature and character of transactions among
them. Consequently, this has changed established views on the traditional doctrine
of copyright, which shape the relationships among these parties.
Challenges to access to scholarly information
While it is true that there are immense advantages to be found via increasing access
to knowledge in development, there are at least two counter-arguments and situations
that negate free access to knowledge or information. First, there are arguments
on the cost of information. The cost of published research in books and
some journals and other media has been increasing, making it harder for individual
readers, libraries and universities or colleges to access the information. Second, the
copyright regime in place largely constrains free access to books and some journals.
In addition to the use of licences, numerous large commercial entities, especially
publishers, have promoted legislation that creates limitations to the access
and use of copyrighted materials. These include, for example, the US Digital
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