STATEMENT FROM COPYRIGHT ALLIANCE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR PATRICK ROSS RE: Introduction of HR-6845, the Fair Copyright in Research Works Act
September 10, 2008
BACKGROUND:
A recent congressional mandate at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) forces publishers to surrender their copyrighted scientific journal articles for free public access 12 months after publication. The mandate passed as part of the FY2008 Labor HHS Appropriations Bill, without benefit of any study or input by committees with expertise and oversight on copyright.
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“The Copyright Alliance praises House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers for introducing HR-6845, the Fair Copyright in Research Works Act, joined by Reps. Darrell Issa (R-CA), Robert Wexler (D-FL) and Tom Feeney (R-FL). This bipartisan bill seeks to address a devaluing of copyright that was perpetrated last year by appropriators in a process that completely bypassed committees of jurisdiction of copyright.
“HR-6845 ensures that research works fully funded by the federal government with the intent of public publishing will receive that treatment, but also preserves the rights of other research funders and publishers.
“The mere fact that a scientist accepts as part of her funding a federal grant should not enable the federal government to commandeer the resulting research paper and treat it as a public domain work. Such grants are provided to pay for the research and resulting data, which is generally freely and immediately available. But taking the scientist’s copyrighted interpretation of the data is not fair to other funders, and it is certainly not fair to the publisher. A publisher improves the work through a rigorous peer review process and develops it for publication. Authors and publishers don’t need the feds playing Rumpelstiltskin by returning after a year to take their children away.
“That publisher has earned the right as a copyright owner to pursue a return on his investment, a pursuit made more difficult when its copyright term is essentially reduced to one year. A copyright owner is supposed to control the right of reproduction, distribution, and public performance and display. But those uses are now all being exercised by the federal government without consent of the copyright owner. If these were in fact government documents no legislative steps would have been necessary. This is a disturbing precedent, a government taking that doesn’t even come with the requisite compensation for the owner.”
ABOUT THE COPYRIGHT ALLIANCE
The Copyright Alliance is a non-profit, non-partisan educational organization dedicated to the value of copyright as an agent for creativity, jobs and growth. For more information, please visit http://www.copyrightalliance.org/.
Members of the Copyright Alliance include: American Federation of Musicians; American Federation of Television & Radio Artists; American Intellectual Property Law Association; American Photographic Artists; American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers; American Society of Media Photographers; Association of American Publishers; Association of Independent Music Publishers; AT&T; Broadcast Music, Inc.; Business Software Alliance; CBS Corporation; Church Music Publishers Association; Directors Guild of America; Entertainment Software Association; Graphic Artists Guild; Langley Productions; Magazine Publishers of America; Motion Picture Association of America; National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR); National Association of Broadcasters; National Collegiate Athletic Association; National Music Publishers' Association; National Basketball Association Properties, Inc.; NBC Universal; News Corporation; Newspaper Association of America; Picture Archive Council of America; PPL and VPL; Professional Photographers of America; Professional School Photographers Association; Recording Industry Association of America; Reed Elsevier; SESAC; Software & Information Industry Association; Sony Pictures Entertainment; Time Warner; Universal Music Group; Viacom; The Walt Disney Company; and Writers Guild of America, West.
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FOR MORE INFORMATION: http://www.copyrightalliance.org/
CONTACT: Gayle Osterberg, 202/669-0689
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