Paul Taylor writes:
In point of fact, Elsevier DOES NOT require ENTCS authors to transfer copyright.
When they were processing my paper for last year's CTCS, they asked me for a copyright transfer, but I refused. Instead, they promptly offered me a license agreement. Although the first version of this was also unacceptable, I succeeded in negotiating another one, which I signed, and they published my paper.
When I was an editor for an Elsevier-edited journal - before I decided they were so nasty I should resign - I discovered how this works. They're scared to death that people will switch to free electronic journals. But, they don't want to openly cave in and institute a universal policy of letting authors keep the copyrights to their work. So, they cut a deal with anyone who pressures them, but don't advertise this. For more on the evils of Reed Elsevier, and what to do about it, see this: http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/journals.html To see the copyright policies of most publishers, see this: http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo.php Best, jb