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Links: Public Library of Science Wants Public Domain Research
Posted by Steven Wu on Friday, June 27 @ 13:03:59 EDT Copyright
Yesterday, the Public Library of Science, a nonprofit organization of scientists and physicians, launched a campaign to place scientific research in the public domain. Complains the PLOS:
Virtually all of the latest scientific and medical research publications are now available online, but full access is restricted to a privileged elite at large universities and research institutions who can afford the often exorbitant subscription fees. Journal publishers often pocket excessive profits, while most American taxpayers, who paid the researchers' salaries and expenses, are denied access.
To rectify this problem, the PLOS is supporting legislation that "would put publications describing research substantially funded by taxpayer dollars into the public domain."

Read their press release here. It'll be interesting to see how this progresses--and how scientists will react. (Link via The Volokh Conspiracy.)

 
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by Anonymous on Friday, June 27 @ 15:18:09 EDT
It certainly seems like a good idea. Has a more limited copyright duration been considered? Maybe 6 months or 1 year? That would give the publishers some time to make a profit yet still allow the research into the public domain. A compromise like that might mean less opposition from the publishers and a greater probability of success.

And maybe it would have to be a change in copyright. Maybe it would just be a contractual obligation: "in exchange for rights to publish this research XYZ agrees to release copyrights to the work on or before MM DD YYYY."


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