RE: New US Bill re. Copyright/Federal Funding

[Linda Hopkins <lin.hopkins@hotmail.com>]

Dear all:

My earlier comment was simply to answer the question posed as to 
why publishers talk about authors' rights when they contest the 
efforts of government to force free publication of 
federally-funded research.  The answer is that publishers want to 
generate sympathy for the authors whose cause they believe will 
find more sympathy in the courts and in the public arena than the 
rights of the publishers to charge for the information.  I am 
simply saying that since the authors/researchers have already 
signed away their rights of publishing the research rights=2C 
this is a fallacious argument on the part of the publishers.  I 
just object to the sleight of hand.  Our country is suffering 
from a dearth of honesty in public policy discussions now and I 
would like people to change that.

That is not saying that scholarly research publishers do not 
provide both a service.

The legitimate argument is how many rights under a license are 
fair for th federal government agencies funding the resarch to 
hold in the research and how much control by the publishers are 
fair based on what's best for the country's science, the 
publishing arms of the universities, and the researchers 
themselves.  That is the question. It is compliaced.

Linda K. Hopkins
Attorney at Law
Intelliware Int'l Law Firm 
WestRoseville MN