On June 25, Senators John Cornyn and Joe Lieberman re-introduced the Federal Research Public Access Act (FRPAA, S.1373) in the Senate.

This is an important development. FRPAA would essentially extend the NIH open-access policy across the federal government. Most federally-funded researchers would be required to deposit their peer reviewed manuscripts in a suitable open access repository at the time of acceptance for publication, and the repositories would be required to release the open access copies no later than six months after publication.

Currently, the NIH and the Institute of Education Sciences (within the Dept of Ed) are the only federal agencies with similar policies, and both of them allow 12 month delays, not just the FRPAA six month delay. FRPAA would apply to all unclassified research funded in whole or part by agencies whose budgets for extramural research are $100 million/year or greater.

Here at PK, we've been keeping our heads down the past few days, trying to fight against some really bad legislation. Once we finally get word of one, another one popped up. There are three in all (so far) are four (another was introduced during the writing of this post!!!) and we're going to need your help to put them away.

S. 3325, The Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights Act of 2008

First up is the Senate's version of the House's PRO-IP bill, S. 3325, “The Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights Act of 2008.” Rashmi's written a good breakdown of the differences between the bills, but that analysis may not hold up for long as we're hearing that, as you read this, a deal may have been made to nix the differences between the bills so a compromise can be passed with ease.

In this issue: Open Internet Up for Hill Discussion; NIH Gets Strong Recommendation on Open Access; New Fair Use Report Sets Out Strong Case

In this issue: Broadcast Flag Kept Under Wraps; Google Print Program Raises Objections; NIH Open Access Stats Dismal

In this issue: Countdown to Broadcast Flag; Response to NIH Open Access Underwhelming; WIPO Moving on Broadcasting Treaty

In this issue: Anti-Grokster and Neutral Briefs Filed; Copyright Office Examines Orphan Works; Don’t Forget the Other Case - BnetD; Senate Passes Copyright Legislation; NIH Announces Open Access Policy; and Love Letter (Hate Mail?) from PFF.