Category Archives: Open access

The Chronicle: Project of Publishers’ Association Is Criticized by Some of Its Members and Open-Access Advocates

The Association of American Publishers has landed in hot water with university presses and research librarians, as well as open-access advocates, thanks to a new undertaking that is billed as an attempt to “safeguard the scientific and medical peer-review process.”

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The Chronicle News Blog: Antipiracy Lawsuits, Four Years Later

Next month will mark the fourth anniversary of the Recording Industry Association of America’s legal campaign against music piracy, an effort that has seen plenty of college students slapped with thousand-dollar lawsuits. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a group that has opposed the industry group in court and in public debate, is commemorating the occasion with a caustic report on that lengthy campaign.

“RIAA v. the People: Four Years Later” offers a detailed recap of the recording industry’s lawsuits, which now total nearly 30,000, according to the group’s calculations. The report also profiles the industry’s shifting legal tactics, which have familiarized campus technologists with John Doe subpoenas and pre-litigation notices.

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The Chronicle: FILE-SHARING LANGUAGE DROPPED

Facing widespread outrage from college officials, a prominent senator withdrew legislative language on Monday that would have required some institutions to buy technology to curtail illegal file sharing on their campuses.

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Inside Higher Ed: Showdown over file sharing

College officials have been aware and wary of growing Congressional interest in student file sharing of music and videos — a practice many students consider normal and that the entertainment industry views as tantamount to theft. Colleges, generally feeling caught in the middle, have worried that Congress might try to impose an unworkable solution.

The Chronicle: Influential Senator Plans to Propose Controversial File-Sharing Amendment to Higher Education Act

A key U.S. senator plans to introduce a controversial amendment to the Higher Education Act today intended to put an end to illegal file sharing on college campuses.

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The Chronicle: A Judge Jettisons ‘John Doe’ Subpoenas

When the Recording Industry Association of America started filing “John Doe” subpoenas to ascertain the names of campus song-swapping suspects, some lawyers complained about the process. Ex parte discovery tactics — in which John Does are often unaware that they are subpoena subjects — should be reserved for extreme circumstances, the critics argued.

In fact, several people identified in the John Doe subpoenas have tried making that case in court, but judges have routinely slapped the argument down. Until now, that is: A U.S. District Court judge has told the RIAA it cannot use the John Doe method to uncover the names of 16 suspected music pirates at the University of New Mexico, according to the blog Recording Industry vs. The People.

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Christian Science Monitor: Universities strike back in battle over illegal downloads

In addition to paying hefty tuition and footing the bill for costly textbooks, university students may also need to pay prominent record labels a chunk of change if they choose to illegally download music on the Internet.

The 2006-07 academic year was an aggressive one for the Recording Industry Association of America’s crackdown on illegal downloads by college students. RIAA sent three times more copyright violation notices to universities than it did the previous academic year. Hundreds of prelitigation letters offered to settle for about $3,000.

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Inside Higher Ed: Sharing Ideas About Sharing Files

To use one of several metaphors to come out of Tuesday’s Congressional hearing on efforts to combat illegal downloading, colleges are finding themselves in the middle of a high-tech “arms race” between the recording and movie industries on one side and computer users, using increasingly clever methods to download copyrighted works for free, on the other.

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The Chronicle: Another Cost for Students Accused of Internet Piracy: Fees to Reconnect to Campus Networks

Stanford University students who pirate copyrighted materials online may end up having to pay to reconnect to the campus computer network.

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Inside Higher Ed: Standing Up for Open Access

After complaints from MIT faculty and others, engineers’ group rethinks policy that limits transmission of materials on an online database

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Inside Higher Ed: File Sharing Shut Down

Ohio University announced Tuesday that unauthorized file sharing on its network has “virtually stopped” after two weeks of monitoring for unauthorized file sharing. Notices from the Recording Industry Association of America about illegal file sharing dropped from nearly 10 to 50 per day down to almost zero, the university’s chief information officer said. Ohio’s original plan to block all peer-to-peer file sharing other than for students and faculty members who requested exemptions was controversial for potentially limiting valid uses of the technology. But since then, Ohio has upgraded its system to filter out illegal file sharing while leaving most legal file sharing untouched.

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Inside Higher Ed: Ohio U. Restricts File Sharing

Ohio University, under heavy pressure from the recording industry to curtail illegal downloading on campus, announced a plan Wednesday to monitor its campus network for peer-to-peer file sharing and disable Internet access for students violating a new policy restricting the use of all peer-to-peer technology.

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The Chronicle News Blog: Academic Presses Endorse Statement on Scholarly Publishing in Digital Age

Another group of academic publishers has taken a stand in the open-access wars. The Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division of the Association of American Publishers announced this week its endorsement of the Brussels Declaration on STM Publishing. That document spells out “key industry principles” articulated by the International Association of Scientific, Technical, and Medical Publishers in response to a European Commission conference on scientific publishing this year.

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The Chronicle: Hughes Institute’s Deal With Elsevier Will Open Up Access to Its Researchers’ Work

In the ever-shifting terrain of scientific publishing, two big players have jostled the field by reaching an agreement that would trade cash payments for making peer-reviewed manuscripts freely available six months after their publication.Hughes Institute’s Deal With Elsevier Will Open Up Access to Its Researchers’ Work

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Inside Higher Ed: University Presses Take Their Stand

The open access debate is one of the hottest topics in academic publishing, with advocates for access and publishers battling for political and public support. University presses have been feeling somewhat in the middle and sometimes ignored — and they responded Tuesday with a policy paper outlining their perspective.

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