Posted July 3, 2003.

House Bill Seeks Public Domain for Federally Funded Research

Rep. Martin O. Sabo (D-Minn.) introduced a bill June 26 that would amend U.S. copyright law to allow free access to medical and scientific research “substantially funded” by the federal government. The Public Access to Science Act (H.R. 2613), supported by a nonprofit group of scientists based in San Francisco called the Public Library of Science, would permit free distribution of tax-supported research on the Internet.

“Our government spends $45 billion a year to support scientific and medical research whose product is new knowledge for the public benefit,” Sabo said in proposing the legislation. “It defies logic to collectively pay for our medical research, only to privatize its profitability and availability.”

Alan I. Leshner, chief executive officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, pointed out in a July 2 IDG News Service report that the Sabo bill leaves open what level of public funding would require lifting the copyright restrictions and whether research partially funded by private organizations or other governments would be included.

“I’m very pleased that they’re doing this experiment,” Leshner said of the Public Library of Science. “But it is an experiment, and I think it has yet to be seen whether this model will work.”

Posted July 3, 2003.