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.
--
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