If you have a few minutes on Wed Sep 24, please call Washington and tell ’em that the “Fair Copyright in Research Works Act” is a bunch of hooey. On the short term, the proposed bill would destroy the NIH Public Access Policy, which ensures scholarly and public access to taxpayer-funded research, as opposed to locking it behind a publisher paywall. On the long term, it would seriously undermine other open access efforts.
Quick summary and numbers to call/fax, from The Alliance for Taxpayer Access: HR 6845 Call to Action.
As usual, Peter Suber has had lots of good things to say on this. Search his weblog for “Conyers bill” for more.
No, this ain’t $700 billion, but it’s something.
