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September 13, 2008
Clearing the Air: Intellectual Property Revisited
On September 11th, the Association of American Publishers (AAP) issued a press release titled Publishers Praise New Legislation to Safeguard Copyright in Research Works regarding the legislation of the Fair Copyright in Research Works Act (H.R. 6845) that will aid to "protect the rights of authors and publishers of copyrighted, peer-reviewed, scientific journal articles."
The hearing was held to discuss the "implications of a government mandate that relies on a Federal agency's funding of scientific research." The previous mandate gives funding agencies the freedom as they see fit, to distribute the funding recipient's works, which "undercuts...the quality assurance processes of peer review." This legislation is to address issues of the mandate's inconsistencies with U.S. copyright law and "our nation's ability to comply with international treaty obligations." Allan Adler, AAP Vice President for Government and Legal Affairs recognizes the need to keep incentives in place for peer-reviewed information so that "we are ensured of the quality and integrity of published research."
This act recognizes the "importance of the added value that journal publishers contribute," and would "keep the Federal Government from undermining copyright protection for journal articles where private-sector publishers have added such significant value." In other words we must encourage productivity of this valuable information, not hinder it.
To learn more about this and other issues in scholarly publishing visit:
**The Association of American Publishers (AAP)
**Professional Scholarly Publishing (PSP) a division of AAP
~posted by Dawna Beasecker
Contact information for referenced press release:
Judith Platt/Acacia O'Connor
Ph: 202-220-4550
Posted by colldev at September 13, 2008 03:32 PM