[IP-OA_Forum] Fwd: Re: Germany's Bundesrat against OA

Mo Mai 14 15:52:11 CEST 2007

Liebe Liste,

wir wurden gebeten unten stehende Diskussion aus 
anderen Listen auch hier abzubilden:

>On Sun, 13 May 2007, Armbruster, Chris wrote:
> > ...the publishers' lobbyists on this occasion were successful
> > - they had their position written into the Bundesrat opinion,
> > almost to the letter.
> >
> > This Bundesrat opinion is bad news for OA...
> > How come that toll access publishers had it all their way?
> > ...how good are OA activists in addressing the concerns of
> > policy makers and parliaments?
> >
> > There principally are two routes to OA -
> > a) via the self-regulation of universities, libraries,
> > science organisations and learned societies, or
> > b) via political regulation.  decision-makers... providing
> > 'conclusive evidence' that allows them to decide for you (and
> > against the other side).
> > Is the OA movement ready for this kind of adversarial politics?
>
>Probably not, and probably no need. The research community (researchers,
>their universities and their funders) can do it all amongst themselves
>already. There is a simple way, if we can only get the research community
>to listen, and understand, and act: The Immediate-Deposit/Optional-Access
>Mandate removes the publishers and the publishing lobby from the decision
>loop *completely*. Government intervention is not needed either.
>
>     http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/71-guid.html
>     http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/136-guid.html
>
>All I can do is keep repeating this message, amidst all the hubbub and
>indirection, hoping that it will be understood that all else becomes
>moot if the research community itself (universities and funders) just
>mandate ID/OA: Absolutely nothing else matters. Nothing can stop the
>worldwide research community from doing it. And it will work. And it
>will bring 100% OA very soon. Everything else just means years more of
>the confusion and delay we have now. To reach for less, or for more,
>is to get next to nothing. ID/OA is completely within our reach; all
>we need do is grasp it, now.
>
>Stevan Harnad
>
>On Sun, 13 May 2007, Armbruster, Chris wrote:
>
> > Dear Peter, dear all,
> >
> > The German Bundesrat is NOT against OA, but it is also not pro OA.
> >
> > The headline ('against OA') and summary on Heise
> > Online presumably seeks to capture the drift of
> > the Bundesrat deliberations, which are perceived
> > as being less supportive of OA than the EC
> > communication on scientific information (from February 2007).
> >
> > I urge you and anyone interested to study this
> > case more closely. Strategically, it could be
> > important to learn from this, because the
> > Bundesrat - more specifically, its Committees for
> > the EU, for legal policy and for economic affairs
> > - explicitly reacted to the EC communication on scientific information.
> >
> > Recommendations of the Committees from 30 April:
> > 
> http://www.bundesrat.de/cln_051/SharedDocs/Drucksachen/2007/0101-200/139-1-07,templateId=raw,property=publicationFile.pdf/139-1-07.pdf 
>
> >
> >
> > Prior position of the Bundesregierung 
> (Federal Government) from 26 February:
> > 
> http://www.bundesrat.de/cln_051/SharedDocs/Drucksachen/2007/0101-200/139-07,templateId=raw,property=publicationFile.pdf/139-07.pdf 
>
> >
> >
> > Agenda of the Bundesrat (scroll to TOP 34) the
> > clarifies that this neither about legislation nor
> > about a decision, but an opinion (Stellungnahme):
> > 
> http://www.bundesrat.de/cln_051/nn_8690/DE/parlamentsmaterial/to-plenum/833-sitzung/to-node.html?__nnn=true 
>
> >
> > The questions is, of course, what do we make of all of this?
> >
> > There is a prior Heise Online summary that
> > captures the flavour of the deliberations and 
> the shift quite well (I think):
> > http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/89366
> >
> > My comment:
> > 1. The opinion and commentary of the
> > Bundesregierung (26 Feb) was reflective of the EC
> > communication and highlighted organisational,
> > technical, legal and economic issues.
> > 2. In the Bundesrat this was narrowed to economic and legal issues.
> > 3. I notice a resemblance (in spirit, if not in
> > letter) between the concerns written down by the
> > Bundesrat Committees and those of exclusive, toll
> > access, content holding publishers as articulated
> > in the recent white paper of stm, ALPSP and PSP.
> > 4. If OA is defined as 'public provision' of free
> > access then this jars with the prevailing (EC,
> > political) focus on innovation, competitiveness and economic growth.
> > => It is probably fair to say that the
> > publishers' lobbyists on this occasion were
> > successful - they had their position written into
> > the Bundesrat opinion, almost to the letter. The
> > irony is, of course, that exclusive copyright
> > (transfer) favours business models that lead to
> > monopoly rent-seeking. But these arguments did
> > not feature in the Bundesrat. Instead, the
> > publishers could even get the Bundesrat to
> > acknowledge that online silos and exclusive retro
> > digitisation (which, principally, enhances
> > rent-seeking to the detriment of innovation and
> > competition) is a useful contribution to enhancing access.
> >
> > In summary:
> > - This Bundesrat opinion is bad news for OA - and
> > thus deserves to travel fast. The OA movement
> > does need to ask itself: How come that
> > rent-seeking, toll access publishers had it all their way?
> > - OA supporters have been happy to raise the
> > stakes by targeting national and international
> > policy makers (cf. EC petition). Now that
> > attention is given to OA, how good are OA
> > activists in addressing the concerns of policy makers and parliaments?
> > - There principally are two routes to OA - a) via
> > the self-regulation of universities, libraries,
> > science organisations and learned societies, or
> > b) via political regulation. If one decides to
> > move into the political arena, then one needs to
> > be firm on economic and legal detail, build a
> > broad coalition (e.g. including major players of
> > the new economy) and meet the expectations of the
> > decision-makers of providing 'conclusive
> > evidence' that allows them to decide for you (and
> > against the other side). Is the OA movement ready
> > for this kind of adversarial politics?
> >
> > Regards, Chris
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: SPARC Open Access Forum on behalf of Peter Suber
> > Sent: Sat 5/12/2007 9:38 PM
> > To: SPARC Open Access Forum
> > Subject: [SOAF] Germany's Bundesrat against OA
> >
> > Yesterday Stefan Krempl published a story in
> > Heise Online, "Bundesrat für umfassendere 
> Volkszählung und gegen Open Access."
> > http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/89635
> >
> > When I blogged it, I asked for the help of
> > bilingual readers in grasping the details.
> > 
> http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2007_05_06_fosblogarchive.html#8642127590487399314

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Anja Kersting
Universität Konstanz - Bibliothek
Projekt Open Access
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