Andy Sullivan reports for Reuters that in the next few weeks the House Judiciary Committee and the Energy and Commerce Committee will hold joint hearings on a database protection bill. The bill would prohibit wholesale copying of databases containing factual information in the public domain. It could limit our right to copy real estate listings, directories of doctors and lawyers, judicial opinions, and scientific data. The bill is an end-run around the important principle that facts cannot be copyrighted, and a major threat to the free flow of information and the public domain. Also see the discussion on Slashdot. More details as they emerge. (Thanks to C-FIT.)
Posted by
Peter Suber at 9/06/2003 09:17:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
