Advocating for a world where intellectual
property law serves the public interest.

Federal Research Public Access Act Attracts Two Dozen Additional Co-Sponsors

Twenty four additional Representatives have cosponsored the Federal Research Public Access Act, (FPRAA, H.R.4004), introduced by Rep. Doyle on February 9. The bill would require Federal Agencies to collect digital copies of peer-reviewed journal articles that result from research supported by their grants, to create and maintain a stable digital repository containing the articles, to […]

Wyden Amendment Needed to Challenge Dubious ACTA Justification

The occasion of Senator’s Wyden’s proposed amendments halting the US ratification of ACTA without express (ex post) congressional approval provides a fine time to analyze the legal justification the administration has offered thus far for entering ACTA without congressional approval. The recent justification by the State Department abandons the “sole executive agreement” rationale for ACTA. […]

Wyden Offers Amendments on ACTA and TPP

Wyden has proposed two amendments relating to intellectual property and trade policy to the Jumpstarting Our Business Sector Act (JOBS Act). The first is a reaction to the Obama Administration’s assertion that it can bind the United States to ACTA without Congressional Approval. The Wyden ACTA amendment states that “the President may not accept, or […]

March 19, 2012

Infojustice Roundup Intellectual Property and the Public Interest Trans Pacific Partnership Negotiation News TPP Intellectual Property Negotiations Headed to Chile April 9-13 U.S. Proposal for IP and Medicines in the TPP Faces Stiff Opposition Maine State House of Representatives Calls for TPP Transparency Public Citizen’s Comparative Analysis of the U.S. Intellectual Property Proposal and Australian […]

Siyavula – Free Textbooks in South Africa

The Sunday Times has reported on Siyavula, a project started by Mark Horner that has provided over 2.4 million textbooks to high schools in South Africa. Siyavula volunteers write textbooks for 10th-to-12th grade math and science classes, which are published under a creative commons license. Schools and students can download them for free, and the […]

Research Councils UK Plans to Extend Open Access Policy

Reposted from University of Lincoln Research Blog Annalisa Jones (CC BY-SA 2.0) Research Councils UK (RCUK) have produced a draft policy paper which sees an amendment to open access policies whereby it will be mandatory for all RCUK-funded papers be made freely available six months after publication. The draft policy paper was published on the EnablingOpenScholarship website […]