Friends of OA are dividing on the Orphan Works Act of 2008 (H.R. 5889 and S. 2913), now under consideration in both houses of Congress.
Lawrence Lessig opposes the bill on the ground that it's onerous and overlooks a superior solution. See Little Orphan Artworks, op-ed in the New York Times, May 20, 2008.
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.
