Lila Guterman, Treasury Department Removes Restrictions on U.S. Publications by Authors in Embargoed Countries, Chronicle of Higher Education, December 16, 2004 (accessible only to subscribers). Excerpt: 'The U.S. Treasury Department ruled on Wednesday that trade embargoes do not restrict publishing, so American publishers, including scholarly journals and university presses, do not have to apply for a license if they wish to edit or publish works by authors in Cuba, Iran, or Sudan. The ruling, which did not mention any other embargoed countries, came two years after the department was first asked to clarify whether trade embargoes apply to publishing, and seemingly contradicts several interim decisions. Publishers considered the decision a major victory. The ruling, by the department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, known as OFAC, allows such activities as substantive editing, payment of royalties, adding photographs, and collaborating with authors in embargoed countries -- "all the things they said before were not allowed," said Marc H. Brodsky, who is executive director of the American Institute of Physics, which publishes 11 journals, and chairman of the Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division of the Association of American Publishers....Although the ruling continues to prohibit transactions with the governments of Cuba, Iran, and Sudan, it specifies that the restrictions do not apply to the countries' "academic and research institutions and their personnel." Mr. Brodsky said it was unclear how the regulation would affect a research branch of one of the countries' governments, such as an equivalent of the National Institutes of Health.'
Posted by
Peter Suber at 12/16/2004 11:53:00 AM.
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.
