“What is the difference between:
1. the ‘Copyright transfer’ of ‘Infonomics society’ (in your list)
and
2. the Copyright conditions of the prestigious ‘Taylor and Francis’”
I’m not a copyright lawyer, but I have studied these legalities in depth. Copyright law is complex and there are a million details that could affect any specific situation, so I’m going to oversimplify things and try to stick to plain English.
‘Infonomics society’ requires that you give them ownership of the copyright, basically giving them absolute ownership of the paper. This means THEY can sue YOU for doing stuff with the paper you wrote. They then say they will PERMIT you to use THEIR paper (the one you wrote) own paper in a few ways (such as using your own paper in a course you’re teaching). However that permission comes with conditions and it’s very vague and very limited. If you screw up, or if they dislike what you’re doing, they can sue you into oblivion. In the last several years copyright law has been strengthened into an extremely potent weapon, and you really do not want to be on the receiving end of a copyright lawsuit. The fact that you wrote the paper is NOT going save you.
‘Taylor and Francis’ gives you a choice. One option is that you keep ownership of the paper you wrote, and in essence you merely promise never to sue them for publishing it. You can do basically anything you like with your paper and no one can sue you for anything. You’re safe. The only possible downside here is if someone else publishes your paper without permission then you are the one who’d have to hire a lawyer to sue them for it (and you’re the one who gets the $$$ award when you win in court).
‘Taylor and Francis’ also gives you the option of transferring the copyright to them, meaning their legal staff goes after anyone who illegally copies the paper. If you do give them the copyright, their terms put a lot of effort protecting you. They give much broader terms saying you can still use the paper you wrote in ways you’d expect to be able to still use it. But more fundamentally you know they won’t use the copyright to screw you over because if they did that then other authors would simply stop selecting this option.
