The July 11 issue of Library Journal has a short piece on the Lofgren bill. Excerpt: "The plan would work on two fronts: if copyright owners do not pay the fee [$1 after 50 years and every 10 years thereafter up to a maximum of the author's life plus 70 years], the work enters the public domain, meaning that libraries and others would be free to make the work available in digital editions. If the copyright owner does pay the fee, the information is on file, thus making the permissions process more easily managed. This is especially important to librarians. Experts estimate that after 50 years from the time of publication, 98 percent of copyrighted materials are no longer providing any economic benefit to copyright holders. At the press conference to introduce the bill, Lofgren specifically acknowledged the support of the library community." (Thanks to ResourceShelf.)
Posted by
Peter Suber at 7/13/2003 04:45:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
