Important post from Change Congress over at Huffington Post:
You may have heard of Big Oil, but have you heard of “Big Paper”? We know, it sounds absurd, but check this out.
Right now, there’s a proposal in Congress to forbid the government from requiring scientists who receive taxpayer funds for medical research to publish their findings openly on the Internet.
This ban on “open access publishing” (which is currently required) would result in a lot of government-funded research being published exclusively in for-profit journals — inaccessible to the general public.
Why on earth would anyone propose this? A new report by transparency group MAPLight.org shows that sponsors of this bill — led by Rep. John Conyers — received twice as much money from the publishing industry as those on the relevant committee who are not sponsors.
This is exactly the kind of money-for-influence scheme that constantly happens behind our backs and erodes the public’s trust in government.
A notice from Change Congress’s Facebook page suggests action you can take. (Reproduced here after the jump.)
We sent out an email to our supporters this week highlighting a certain bill going before Congress to forbid the government from requiring scientists who receive taxpayer funds for medical research to publish their findings openly on the Internet.
This ban on “open access publishing” (which is currently required) would result in a lot of government-funded research being published exclusively in for-profit journals — inaccessible to the general public.
We’re asking folks to call their member of Congress and tell them to vote against this bill. We’ve also drafted up a phone script for you to use at the bottom of this note:
202-224-3121 – to call your local House member
202-225-3951 – to call Rep. ConyersSo far we’ve had great coverage on the issue and hope you can continue to help it grow:
HUFF POST: Is John Conyers shilling for special interests?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lawrence-lessig-and-michael-eisen/is-john-conyers-shilling_b_171189.htmlTECH PRESIDENT: What Cash Records Suggest About Conyers’ Clamp Down on Open Science
http://techpresident.com/blog-entry/what-cash-records-suggest-about-conyers-clamp-down-open-scienceOPEN ACCESS NEWS: Publisher money behind the Conyers bill
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2009/03/publisher-money-behind-conyers-bill.htmlJACK & JILL POLITICS: Is John Conyers Shilling for Big Paper?
http://www.jackandjillpolitics.com/2009/03/is-john-conyers-shilling-for-big-paper/SUPERSPADE: Rep. Conyers, the Fair Copyright in Research Works Act is not fair
http://www.thesuperspade.com/rep-conyers-the-fair-copyright-in-research-works-act-is-not-fair/HAL PLOTKIN: We Must Stop Conyers Corrupt H.R. 801
http://www.plotkin.com/blog-archives/2009/03/we_must_stop_co_1.htmlLESSIG BLOG: John Conyers and Open Access
http://www.lessig.org/blog/2009/03/john_conyers_and_open_access.htmlWe hope you’ll make a call today and help grow the effort! Below is the phone script for the phone calls.
Thanks!
Japhet Els
Change Congress
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“Big Paper” doesn’t sound absurd at all – why else would Rupert Murdoch, that well known pornographer and warmonger, have been awarded a Papal Knighthood for donating large sums of money for an LA Cathedral, which in turn may have been linked to tacit approval for the Catholic use of the NIV version of the Bible – distributed by Zondervan publishing, part of HarperCollins, owned in turn by Murdoch’s News Corporation? Publishers can grease palms too.