In June 2020, the Secretary-General of the United Nations published a "Roadmap for Digtal Cooperation." In this report, he expanded on recommendations made a year before, calling on all actors, including the Member States, the United Nations system, the private sector, and others, to promote digital public goods. He says to realize the benefits of increased internet connectivity, open source projects in the form of digital public goods must be at the center. While the term "digital public good" appears as early as April 2017, this report offers the first broadly accepted definition of digital public goods...The Digital Public Goods Alliance (DGPA) translated that definition into a nine-indicator open standard that we hope will serve as a comprehensive, shared definition to promote the discovery, development, use of, and investment in digital public goods for a more equitable world.
copyright
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Real Copyright Reform Starts With Listening To Users, Not Just The Usual Suspects
In the next baby step on the long march toward reforming the Copyright Act, the House Judiciary Committee is holding hearings on the importance of the “copyright and technology sectors” to the U.S. economy. The first will be held tomorrow. Read More »
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Recommendations For Removing Copyright Hurdles To Scientific Research
The EU e-infrastructure coordination pro-iBiosphere project is preparing the ground for the pursuit of biological research in the digital age. In its "Draft policy for Open Access to data and information" scientists and lawyers recommend that hurdles posed by copyright and database protection should be removed by establishing exceptions for research in a new binding, Europe-wide regulation... Read More »
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Researchers Opt To Limit Uses Of Open-Access Publications
Academics are — slowly — adopting the view that publicly funded research should be made freely available. But data released yesterday suggest that, given the choice, even researchers who publish in open-access journals want to place restrictions on how their papers can be re-used — for example, sold by others for commercial profit. Read More »
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RIAA Still Can't Figure Out How To Use Google's DMCA Tools, Blames Google
This will hardly comes as a surprise, but the RIAA and other "anti-piracy groups" are still complaining that Google "isn't doing enough" to prop up their old and obsolete business models. The latest complaint? That Google's system only accepts a mere 10,000 DMCA takedowns per day and somehow that's just not enough. Read More »
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Riled Up By Elsevier’s Take-Downs? Time To Embrace Open Access
The publishing giant Elsevier owns much of the world’s academic knowledge, in the form of article copyright. In the past few weeks it has stepped up enforcement of its property rights, issuing “take-down notices” to Academia.edu, where many researchers post PDFs of their articles. Read More »
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RIP, Aaron Swartz, And Why Open-Access Matters
Last week, 26-year-old Aaron Swartz hanged himself. Swartz was a champion of open everything: open access code, open access journals, and fought for a utopian version of the internet. In that utopian version of the internet, people have access to information, and freedom of speech trumps SOPA and other draconian copyright laws... Read More »
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Scientific Publishers Offer Solution To White House's Public Access Mandate
A group of scientific publishers today announced a plan for allowing the public to read taxpayer-funded research papers for free by linking to journals' own websites... Read More »
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Senator Revising Proposed Research Release Mandate
A state senator who has proposed making the results of publicly funded research more widely available is amending his legislation after receiving pushback from some in academia. Read More »
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Setting A Standard For Digital Public Goods
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Steal This Research Paper! (You Already Paid for It.)
Before Aaron Swartz became the open-access movement's first martyr, Michael Eisen was blowing up the lucrative scientific publishing industry from within. Read More »
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Swiss Assembly Wants Access To Source Code Of e-Gov Software
Thirteen members of the Swiss parliament are asking the government to demand the right to adapt the source code of GEVER, the record management system commissioned by the government and under development since 2008. [...] Read More »
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Thanks To 3D Printing And Open Source Hardware, Patent May Be On The Cusp Of A Copyright Moment
A new wave of creators care about innovating. They care about building things. And they mostly see patents as getting in the way. Read More »
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The 2012 DMCA Rulemaking: What We Got, What We Didn’t, And How To Improve The Process Next Time
Last week the Librarian of Congress issued his final decision (pdf) limiting copyright owners’ ability to sue you for making full use of the works you buy. The short version: it’s a mixed bag. Read More »
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The Copyright Rule We Need To Repeal If We Want To Preserve Our Cultural Heritage
The anti-circumvention section of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act threatens to make archivists criminals if they try to preserve our society's artifacts for future generations. Read More »
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The Death Of The Academic Book And The Path To Open Access
Is publishing academic books a dying trade? And if so, are free e-books from universities likely to deal the final blow? Read More »
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