Declan McCullagh, Tech firms fail to squelch database bill, News.com, January 21, 2004. Excerpt: "By a 16-7 vote, the House Judiciary committee approved an intellectual property bill that had been opposed by Amazon.com, AT&T, Comcast, Google, Yahoo and some Internet service provider associations. The proposal, backed by big database companies such as Reed Elsevier and Thomson, would extend to databases the same kind of protection that copyrighted works such as music, literature and movies currently enjoy....The bill...is controversial because, critics say, it would sidestep a U.S. Supreme Court decision that said facts could not be copyrighted. Wednesday's vote follows a 10-3 vote last October in a subcommittee. Now the measure likely will go to the House floor in preparation for a possible vote." More coverage.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 1/22/2004 09:02:00 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.
