[FC-discuss] "Scientific publishers get a law introduced to end free publication of govt-funded research"

[Rob Myers]

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/02/16/scientific-publisher.html

"Steve sez, "Currently, the National Institutes of Health require
NIH-funded research to be published in open-access repositories. In a
cop to for-profit science publishers, Congressional Representative
John Conyers (D-MI) has re-introduced a bill (HR801) that essentially
would negate the NIH policy concerning depositing research in OA
repositories. The bill goes further than prohibiting open access
requirements, however, as the bill also prohibits government agencies
from obtaining a license to publicly distribute, perform, or display
such work by, for example, placing it on the Internet, and would
repeal the longstanding 'federal purpose' doctrine, under which all
federal agencies that fund the creation of a copyrighted work reserve
the 'royalty-free, nonexclusive right to reproduce, publish, or
otherwise use the work' for any federal purpose. The bill is bad
news." "