Open Access

   Fair Copyright in Research Works Act Challenges Federal Funding
By Robin Peek 
Last year, when the National Institutes of Health (NIH) endorsed legislation that would mandate the submission of federally funded, accepted, peer-reviewed research to PubMed Central (www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov), some large STM publishers fought back. Even after defeat, when the Omnibus bill passed on Dec. 26, 2007, the publishers said they would come back to the table on the issue of copyright—and so they have. How successful this effort will be is unknown. The previous lobbying efforts even brought a response from the White House. On Sept. 9, 2008, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., introduced the bill HR 6845, Fair Copyright in Research Works Act, that would not only reverse the NIH Public Access Policy but would not allow other federal agencies to put similar policies into place (http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:H.R.6845.IH:). The text of the bill proposes that “No Federal agency may, in connection with a funding agreement, impose or cause the imposition of any term or condition that requires the transfer or license to or for a Federal agency of any right provided under copyright law.”
–>http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/nbReader.asp?ArticleId=50849