[Insight-users] OPEN ACCESS: The Publishers Empire Strikes Back : Attempt to stop the NIH Public Access Policy

[Luis Ibanez]

http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2009/02/conyers-bill-is-back.html

The Conyers bill is back

Yesterday Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) re-introduced the Fair Copyright in
Research Works Act. This year it's H.R. 801 (last year it was H.R.
6845), and co-sponsored by Steve Cohen (D-TN), Trent Franks (R-AZ),
Darrell Issa (R-CA), and Robert Wexler (D-FL). The language has not
changed.

The Fair Copyright Act would repeal the OA policy at the NIH and prevent
similar OA policies at any federal agency. The bill has been referred to
the House Judiciary Committee, where Conyers is Chairman, and where he
has consolidated his power since last year by abolishing the
Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property. The
Judiciary Committee does not specialize in science, science policy, or
science funding, but copyright.

The premise of the bill, urged by the publishing lobby, is that the NIH
policy *somehow* violates copyright law. The premise is false and
cynical. If the NIH policy violated copyrights, or permitted the
violation of copyrights, publishers wouldn't have to back this bill to
amend US copyright law. Instead, they'd be in court where they'd already
have a remedy. For a detailed analysis of the bill and point by point
rebuttal to the publishing lobby's rhetoric,
see my article from October 2008:
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/newsletter/10-02-08.htm#nih

I'll have more soon on ways to mobilize in opposition to the bill and
support the NIH and the principle of public access to publicly-funded
research. Meantime, if you're a US citizen and your representative is a
member of the Judiciary Committee, it's not to early to fire off an
email/fax/letter/phone call to your representative opposing the bill and
defending the NIH policy. You can find ammo here:

     * the open letter from 46 law professors objecting to "serious
       misstatements relating to copyright law" in the publisher
       arguments against the NIH policy, September 8, 2008
       https://mx2.arl.org/Lists/SPARC-OAForum/Message/4592.html

     * the open letter from 33 US Nobel laureates in science
       defending the NIH policy against the Conyers bill,
       September 9, 2008
       https://mx2.arl.org/Lists/SPARC-OAForum/Message/4572.html

     * my article on the bill from October 2008
       http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/newsletter/10-02-08.htm#nih

     * the OAN posts on the bill from the last time around
       http://ur1.ca/603


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Posted by Peter Suber at 2/04/2009 11:54:00 AM.