"IAAMBP (I am a molecular biophysicist) and I actually just finished discussing this article at work before seeing it on /. The parent post is an odd mix of insightful comments and flamebait so I'll respond to the former. BTW the actual research article itself is free for everyone to read, thanks to the authors shelling out an extra 1K$ to allow public access. I'll link it below:
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/01/10/1115323109.full.pdf+html [pnas.org]
If you would prefer having to pay 10-30$ for the privilege of reading what your tax dollars already paid for instead of this commie "open access" stuff, please call your congressman and tell him/her to support HR bill 3699."
So you would prefer that if the taxpayer wants to read published papers about work their taxes funded they should pay the Journals who knows how much for a printed copy MAILED to them. It would have to be priinted and mailed because the text of the law states:
"To ensure the continued publication and integrity of peer-reviewed research works by the private sector.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the `Research Works Act'.
SEC. 2. LIMITATION ON FEDERAL AGENCY ACTION.
No Federal agency may adopt, implement, maintain, continue, or otherwise engage in any policy, program, or other activity that--
(1) causes, permits, or authorizes network dissemination of any private-sector research work without the prior consent of the publisher of such work; or
(2) requires that any actual or prospective author, or the employer of such an actual or prospective author, assent to network dissemination of a private-sector research work.
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) AUTHOR- The term `author' means a person who writes a private-sector research work. Such term does not include an officer or employee of the United States Government acting in the regular course of his or her duties.
(2) NETWORK DISSEMINATION- The term `network dissemination' means distributing, making available, or otherwise offering or disseminating a private-sector research work through the Internet or by a closed, limited, or other digital or electronic network or arrangement.
(3) PRIVATE-SECTOR RESEARCH WORK- The term `private-sector research work' means an article intended to be published in a scholarly or scientific publication, or any version of such an article, that is not a work of the United States Government (as defined in section 101 of title 17, United States Code), describing or interpreting research funded in whole or in part by a Federal agency and to which a commercial or nonprofit publisher has made or has entered into an arrangement to make a value-added contribution, including peer review or editing. Such term does not include progress reports or raw data outputs routinely required to be created for and submitted directly to a funding agency in the course of research."
Notice that the forms of prohibited dessemination include "the Internet or by a closed, limited, or other digital or electronic network or arrangement", which would include the putative reader paying for access to a PDF link on a proprietary Journal website.
Also note that the term "private-sector research" is misleading since any research that the taxpayer supports is, by law, PUBLIC research. I suspect that in a couple years, when the data is published, we'll find out that lobbyist for the Journals gave "campaign donations" (a.k.a bribes) to the authors of the bill specially so that the current law would be repealed and reversed. So, instead of one author paying $1K so that the public could download and read his paper, the Journals would rather be able to charge hundreds or thousands of people $50 or $100 or more to get a printed copy of the article via the mail. A nice tidy profit for them, and a reversion to the old paradigm of scientists relying on the Journals to transmit scientific results to their peers and the public, regardless of how many months it would take.
Also, the flamebait you so maticulously tried to avoid you yourself introduced when you dismissed the taxpayers rights with the word "COMMIE".
Since I helped pay for that research I do not feel it right that I have to pay AGAIN, this time to a middle man, for the previledge of reading about the research. And, if you knew as much about OpenSource as you apparently do about biology, you'd know that OpenSource isn't a Marxist philosophy, contrary to the assertions of the Ballmer, who heads the world's biggest monopoly and is in the process of extending that monopoly on PCs with the introduction of the EUFI HD bootlock. Since Windows is as susceptible as ever to malware the only reason for UEFI is to prevent users of Linux from being able to replace Windows with Linux or to dual boot with it. If Microsoft wants to lock up hardware they should take Apple's route and manufacture their own, and not force independent PC OEMs to act as wholly owned subsidiaries of Microsoft. But, if your flamebait meant anything it probably means that you use a Mac or Win7 and could care less if others wanted the freedom to choose another OS. As long as your ox is not getting gored...