[open-science] US Congress considering bill to restrict NIH open access publication

Tue Sep 16 21:58:16 UTC 2008

>From http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/open-access-science.ars

"The House of Representatives has seen the introduction of legislation, HR
6845 <http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:H.R.6845:> that, depending
on its final format, may significantly curtail or eliminate the NIH's
ability to continue its open access policy. The current bill would prevent
any arm of the federal government from making research funding contingent
upon "the transfer or license to or for a Federal agency of... any right
provided under paragraph (1) or (2) of section
106<http://www.law.cornell.edu/copyright/copyright.act.chapt1b.html>in
an extrinsic work, to the extent that, solely for purposes of this
subsection, such right involves the availability to the public of that
work." Those Section 106 rights include the reproduction of the work."

Extremely concerning, if you ask me the PubMed open access is one of the
best things NIH has done recently, and should be supported, not endangered!
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