The response to this insightful question is a bit complicated, so the responses are in three parts, as follows:
(1) Can we upload articles to ORCID?
This is not possible because of technical limits. ORCID does not store articles, only the metadata/citation for the articles with a pointer to wherever the article resides (publisher's site, author's own website, University digital repository, scholarly sharing site, etc.)
(2) Authors upload their papers to their websites under a variety of legal circumstances which include the following possible scenarios:
a. Author owns copyright in paper, so it is okay to post online;
b. Author does not own copyright, so it is a copyright infringement to post online, at author's risk of legal liability;
c. Author does not own copyright, does not secure permission, but makes claim that the act of posting is a Fair Use under US Copyright Law, absorbing legal risk of such a claim;
d. Author does not own copyright, but secures permission from copyright owner to post online so it is okay
(3) What version of an article is okay to post online relates to (2d) above. If an author does not own copyright, and decides to secure permission to post the article online, the permission received may specify which version(s) of the article may be posted. To remain compliant with the law, we have to abide by the terms and conditions of the permission granted. If we deviate from what the copyright holder says we can do, we infringe the copyright.
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