Sharing with the good folks at wikimedia public policy too.

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*A transition of power in the United States*

Prior to the inauguration, the Obama administration hustled to push projects out the door. The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) reported https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2017/01/09/making-federal-research-results-available-all on the status of the implementation of the 2013 Memorandum On Increasing Access to the Results of Federally Funded Scientific Research: *"22 Federal departments and agencies accounting for more than 99 percent of U.S. Federal R&D expenditures now have public access plans in place." *The State Department released https://creativecommons.org/2017/01/20/state-department-publishes-open-licensing-playbook-federal-agencies/ the Federal Open Licensing Playbook, a list of considerations, use cases, and recommendations for federal departments interested in developing and implementing open license requirements on federally-funded grant projects.

There have also been some disturbing signs re: Trump administration. Many news outlets reported http://www.infoworld.com/article/3157870/open-source-tools/fears-of-trump-prompt-open-datas-underground-railroad.html that government-funded and affiliated scientists have been backing up their data, due to the unknown and potentially hostile handling of government science and data efforts, particularly around hotbed issues like climate change. Immediately upon taking office, the White House website was reset, scrubbing many issues and executive office department sites. For example, *"Office of Science and Technology Policy" and "Open Government Initiative" returns a 404 on the new White House site*. Even though the web contents of the Obama administration White House have been preserved, it's still TBD how Trump will support (or not) key departments and projects related to promoting access to research, data, and technology.

Also reported within the last few days is that some federal agencies have been directed *not to communicate with the public* https://sunlightfoundation.com/list-of-federal-government-agencies-told-not-to-communicate-with-the-public/ .

*European Copyright Reform*

The reform efforts continue, with MEPs on the relevant committees now collecting textual amendments to the Commission's proposal for a Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market. Some EU library and research organisations http://libereurope.eu/blog/2017/01/10/eu-copyright-reform-liber-joins-leading-research-groups-call-change/ are chiming in to expand the exception for text and data mining, and the FutureTDM project http://www.futuretdm.eu/blog/legal-policies/futuretdms-policy-recommendations-are-here/ has an interesting set of policy recommendations regarding TDM. Meanwhile, the arguments continue with regard to the controversial introduction of a press publisher's right (also known as an ancillary copyright, link tax, etc.). OpenForum Europe published a paper http://www.communia-association.org/2017/01/12/new-study-explores-possible-effects-counterproductive-press-publishers-right/ which analyses the justifications for the proposed press publisher’s right, and assesses how it would fit in the EU copyright framework. The EU Commission--which has defending the press publisher's right and continually claiming that it would not affect linking--apparently slipped up and admitted that it would https://openmedia.org/en/european-commission-finally-admits-their-copyright-proposal-would-levy-link-tax-articles-shared .

*Open Access/Open Education*

The open access policy at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is now in effect https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/01/16/gates-foundation-open-access-policy-goes-effect-joining-others (Jan 1 2017), meaning that *researchers that receive money from the foundation must publish their scientific papers and data online under a CC BY license, with zero embargo when it goes live.*

As reported last time, there's a trend with universities in several countries that have been cancelling subscriptions to scholarly journal content because their budgets can no longer afford to pay the access fees. It's happening again http://www.thegauntlet.ca/the-rising-price-of-knowledge-university-of-calgary-cuts-1600-academic-resources/, this time at the University of Calgary. Researchers are--understandably--upset.

Bloomberg has been reporting on the massive revenue drop https://www.bloomberg.com/gadfly/articles/2017-01-18/pearson-textbook-mistake-puts-ceo-fallon-at-risk-of-expulsion at education publisher Pearson: *"revenue from U.S. college books fell some 30 percent in the fourth quarter, bringing the annual drop to 18 percent ... even if the recent spike in returns is a one-time adjustment, the days of Pearson printing money by selling textbooks at astronomical prices are history."*

*Copyright Week * Last week was Copyright Week https://www.eff.org/copyrightweek, "a series of actions and discussions supporting key principles that should guide copyright policy. Every day this week, various groups are taking on different elements of the law, and addressing what’s at stake, and what we need to do to make sure that copyright promotes creativity and innovation." There was great participation again this year, with *50 blog posts* on a variety of topics from a great group of orgs, including Creative Commons and affiliate teams.