Comment. We all hate spam, scams, and spyware, but we should understand what's in the other pan of the scale here. Whois isn't research data. It includes some private information on domain registrants, such as an email address, snail-mail address, and phone number. Apart from the privacy problem, disclosing this info could worsen spam (at least for domain registrants). Some of this info is already OA or easy to find, but the FTC wants OA to all of it. It's not clear whether the FTC wants easy access just for itself, or just for law enforcement, or whether it wants easy access for everyone. ICANN wants Whois info to be used only for technical purposes.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 6/28/2006 10:16:00 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.
