20090830 Open Access Defended by European Commission Legal Experts More
From s5h.net
Europe Seeks to Ease Rules for Putting Books Online
The European Commission on Friday will propose drafting rules that would make it easier to put many books and manuscripts online. The move is a part of the commission’s effort to bolster access to information and to encourage online businesses.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/28/technology/internet/28books.html?_r=3 Steve Schultze to Join CITP as Associate Director
I'm thrilled to announce that Steve Schultze will be joining the Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton, as our new Associate Director, starting September 15. We know Steve well, having followed his work as a fellow at the Berkman Center at Harvard, not to mention his collaboration with us on RECAP.
http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/blog/felten/steve-schultze-join-citp-associate-director Online tool sheds sunlight on court records
"User fees are not on their face an absurd proposition," said RECAP co-developer Stephen Schultze, who is also a fellow at Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet and Society. "On the other hand, there may be enough benefits to open access . . . and justice that it would be worth funding it out of general taxpayer dollars."
http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090819_1886.php?oref=topnews Another Reason for Open Access
Why not, indeed? For as Neylon points out: If an author feels strongly enough that a paper will get to a wider audience in a new journal, if they feel strongly enough that it will benefit from that journal’s peer review process, and they are prepared to pay a fee for that publication, why should they be prevented from doing so? If that publication does bring that science to a wider audience, is not a public service publisher discharging their mission through that publication? Which is only possible, of course, in open access journals adopting a funder pays approach, since traditional publishers need to be able to point to the uniqueness of their content if they are trying to sell it - after all, why would you want to buy it twice? Open access journals have no such imperative, since they are giving it away, so readers have no expectations that the stuff is unique and never seen before.
http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2009/08/another-reason-for-open-access.html Draft Open Access and Licensing Framework released
Today the State Services Commission is releasing the draft New Zealand Government Open Access and Licensing framework (NZGOAL) (HTML with comments [*]). This document provides guidance for State Services agencies on:
- open access to non-copyright information; and * open licensing of copyright works,
in both cases with a view to allowing their re-use by others. (It does not apply to information or works containing personal or other sensitive information).
http://blog.e.govt.nz/index.php/2009/08/27/draft-open-access-and-licensing-framework-released/ Defending the Digitised Public Domain
This is a crucially important issue. At the moment, some publishers are trying to create a new copyright in public domain materials just because they have been digitised. This is not only absurd, but threatens to nullify much of the huge potential of turning analogue knowledge into digital form.
http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2009/08/defending-digitised-public-domain.html
Recent
Manifesto
We already have a substantial free legal web, but it is not joined up. We have the resources and the technologies to join it up — now — for the benefit of lawyers and the community at large. Those of us who have an interest in access to the law and justice and the efficient provision of legal services have a duty to make this happen. There has in the past 18 months been a sea change in Government’s attitude to the provision of Public Sector Information (PSI) and the encouragement of user-generated services supporting government. In particular, the independent Power of Information Review recommended changes that have been substantially accepted by Government, who, through the Power of Information Task Force are now committed to making this happen. The time has come to build the Free Legal Web.
