» Dissertation distribution online: my comments at the AHA The Occasional Pamphlet

"[On] the question of whether an author retains rights for a PhD dissertation. The answer is Yes, in the sense that the author retains the copyright in the work. But the answer is No, in the sense that the author cannot restrict access to the work at his or her whim. The reason is this: We grant the PhD degree for substantial and original contributions to human knowledge. Not for private increases to knowledge, but public ones....Each university decides what constitutes a sufficient dissemination process, and the method of providing the knowledge to the public has changed over time....It should be clear to PhD candidates that although they own the rights to their work, they must make their dissertations available to the world as a condition of their degree according to the policies and practices of the university. In effect, the policies implicitly require that the candidate provide the university a nonexclusive license to publicly disseminate the dissertation....Of course, it would help greatly if universities made these conditions explicit rather than leaving them implicit in their practices...."