Lila Guterman, Congressman Says Treasury Department's Restrictions on Publishers Violate Law, Chronicle of Higher Education, March 5, 2004 (accessible only to subscribers). Excerpt: "Scholarly publishers' plight under trade embargoes has captured the attention of a Congressman. Rep. Howard L. Berman, a California Democrat, wrote to the U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday decrying its position that simple editing represents a prohibited service to authors in embargoed countries....Mr. Berman is the author of an amendment to the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 that exempted 'information and informational materials' from economic embargoes. But the foreign-assets-control office, known as OFAC, subsequently took a stricter view, exempting only 'information and informational materials' that had been 'fully created' by people in the embargoed countries and had received no 'substantive or artistic alteration or enhancement' in the United States....Mr. Berman wrote to OFAC's director, R. Richard Newcomb, that the office's interpretations of the Berman Amendment 'are clearly inconsistent with both the letter and spirit of the law' and called the restriction on editing 'patently absurd.'...Mr. Berman said that he would consider new legislation if OFAC does not reconsider. 'I feel strongly about this and intend to see it through,' he said."
Posted by
Peter Suber at 3/05/2004 08:18:00 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.
