Yes, and I expect you (anigbrowl) understand this, but it wouldn't even necessarily require that copyright be transferred to make a promise to publish enforceab

Yes, and I expect you (anigbrowl) understand this, but it wouldn't even necessarily require that copyright be transferred to make a promise to publish enforceable. One view of contracts is that a contract is merely a set of legally enforceable promises. E.g., On December 1, 2013, Author and Publisher reach an agreement: Author promises that on January 1, 2014 he/she will transfer copyright to Publisher in exchange for Publisher's promise to publish sometime in 2014. Each promise serves as consideration for the other and Author becomes legally bound to transfer the copyright on January 1 as soon as the agreement is made on December 1. All of this goes far beyond main theme of the thread, but I initially raised the point because there seemed to be some confusion on whether Elsevier could rightfully claim ownership of copyrights. . . .