Adam Liptak, Treasury Department Is Warning Publishers of the Perils of Criminal Editing of the Enemy, New York Times, February 28, 2004 (free registration required). Excerpt: "The federal government has recently...warned publishers they may face grave legal consequences for editing manuscripts from Iran and other disfavored nations, on the ground that such tinkering amounts to trading with the enemy....In theory --almost certainly only in theory-- correcting typographical errors and performing other routine editing could subject publishers to fines of $500,000 and 10 years in jail." Quoting Eric A. Swanson, a senior vice president at John Wiley & Sons: "It is against the principles of scholarship and freedom of expression, as well as the interests of science, to require publishers to get U.S. government permission to publish the works of scholars and researchers who happen to live in countries with oppressive regimes." Quoting Leon Friedman, a Hofstra law professor who sometimes represents PEN: "That's censorship. That's a prior restraint." Quoting Esther Allen, chairwoman of the PEN American Center's translation committee, said the rules would also appear to ban translations: "During the cold war, the idea was to let voices from behind the Iron Curtain be heard. Now that's called trading with the enemy?"
Posted by
Peter Suber at 2/28/2004 07:54:00 AM.
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.
