This is a free online information service, covering topics such as scholarly publishing, avoiding questionable publishing practices, open access, open educational resources, access to knowledge, copyright and related matters, library matters, including institutional repositories and digitisation projects, access issues related to people with disabilities, and other topics. Should you not wish to receive these emails anymore, please send an email to denise.nicholson@scholarlyhorizons.com with “Unsubscribe to online service” in the subject field

Intellectual Property
Copyright – South Africa
- Copyright Amendment Bill B13F-2017
- The hearing of the President’s Ex Parte matter, i.e. referral of the Copyright Amendment Bill, will now be heard by the Constitutional Court of South Africa on 19 and 20 March 2025
- EFF Statement on the R3.4 million Fraud Scandal at SAMRO
- Forensic probe uncovers R3.4m of dubious payouts by corrupt ex-SAMRO staff
- Press Release – Music Makers United’s Response to SAMRO Forensic Report Theft of Music Makers Royalties
- Addendum to MMU’s Response
- Another SAMRO Scandal, in Numbers
Copyright – Globally
- A Wartime Natural Experiment About Copyright
- EFF Speaks Out in Court for Citizen Journalists
- EFF Tells Appeals Court to Keep Copyright’s Fair Use Rules Broad And Flexible
- Jimmy Kimmel’s Fair Use Victory: What It Means for Content Creators
- Musicians for Fairness & Preservation Open Letter
- Taiwan court found using copyrighted image for resale fair use
- Tech companies face tough AI copyright questions in 2025
- The right to research in Africa
- What becomes public domain in 2025? Popeye, ‘A Farewell to Arms’ among the most famous
Artificial Intelligence (AI) (incl. Copyright)
- AI and Content — The 2024 Trend that Wasn’t and the Related Opportunity that Exists
- AI Has a Copyright Problem – Do Decentralized Networks Have a Solution?
- AI means the end of internet search as we’ve known it
- AI-Generated Commentaries Flood Scholarly Journals, Distorting Research Metrics
- Constitutional Constraints on Regulating Artificial Intelligence
- Copyright and Artificial Intelligence – Open Consultation (UK)
- Internet Copyright: How Should AI Companies Compensate, for, Beyond Fair Use Training Data?
- Redirecting AI: Privacy regulation and the future of artificial intelligence
- Should AI movies be considered art, be eligible for copyright protection?
- UK consultation on copyright and artificial intelligence: Walking a fine line
Retractions and Predatory Publishing Practices
- Fake scientific papers made with AI used names of 3 Japan researchers
- ‘Foolish mistake’: Guest editor loses three articles published in his own special issues
- Pair of management papers retracted for similarities to earlier work
- Does Altering a Dataset Merit Retraction?
Open Access, A2K, Libraries and Scholarly Communication
- A Collective Commitment to Strengthen Open Research Europe and Amplify Its Impact in Scholarly Publishing; Navigating AI ….
- Best practice in theses publishing
- Copyright expiration brings 1929’s films, music, books and art into the public domain: Popeye, Singin’ in the Rain … more
- Open access. Break the paywall. Reclaim knowledge now
- How did science get things so wrong?
- Research and resources for open science and publishing integrity
- Pioneering legal toolkit is helping cultural institutions around the world to share their collections online
Webinars – 2025
Scholarly Horizons Webinars (For more information or to arrange webinars/workshops, please email Denise.Nicholson@scholarlyhorizons.com, or complete form at https://scholarlyhorizons.co.za/webinars-workshops/
A – “Unmasking Deception: Promoting Integrity in Scholarly Communication”
B – “Beyond Words: Upholding Research Integrity with Honest Writing”
C – “POPI Act Demystified: Safeguarding Privacy in the Digital Age”
D – Webinars/workshops that can be tailored to your needs. Topics include copyright, plagiarism, improving writing skills, publishing, deceptive publishing practices, use of Gen AI in a learning, study and research environment, OA, library issues, and others
Conference Alerts – 2025
- AI for Good Global Summit – 8-11 July 2025 – Geneva, Switzerland
- Call for Papers: 5th IFLA South Africa Symposium on Artificial Intelligence – Theme: Artificial Intelligence and Robots Transforming Libraries: Opportunities and Challenges. KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. Date: 16-20 June 2025. Submission Deadline: 30 January 2025.
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