Robert O'Neil, Illegal Trafficking in Arms, Drugs, and International Scholarship, Chronicle of Higher Education, November 12, 2004 (accessible only to subscribers). Excerpt: "Most American scholars remain blissfully ignorant of the risks of international collaboration. Yet simply publishing in the United States an article co-written by a colleague from Cuba, Iran, or Sudan could subject the editor or publisher to criminal liability and fines of up to $500,000 or 10 years in prison. Such is the official interpretation of a ban that derives from the Trading with the Enemy and International Emergency Economic Powers Acts. What was not envisioned at that time was the bizarre extension of the export embargo by the agency charged with its interpretation and enforcement, the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, known as OFAC. That office has ruled that revising a piece for publication or enhancing it with notes or illustrations from any of the embargoed nations could, by being interpreted as the export of a forbidden commodity, violate the law. That ruling has now become the focus of a federal court suit, filed in late September by Arcade Publishing, the Association of American Publishers, the Association of American University Presses, and the PEN American Center, whose members have chafed under OFAC's draconian decree."
Posted by
Peter Suber at 11/09/2004 03:39:00 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.
