Inside Higher Ed has run a nice piece entitled "Rallying Behind Open Access"  announcing an open letter written by a group of Provosts from some very high-end schools. The letter supports Senate Bill 2695, the Federal Research Public Access Act of 2006 (FRPAA), which would require the on-line, open access publication of federally-funded research within six months of publication. The letter is worth reading, and sharing on campus as part of your scholarly communications education program.

Michael Carroll, Law Professor at Villanova University School of Law , Creative Commons Board Member, and Blogger, turns up the heat in the on-going debate over pending federal legislation that would force open access to research supported with federal money. He suggests that publishers, not content to settle for the obvious economic arguments against open access, have begun working a less savory side of the street: an appeal to elitism. He writes:

Charles Bailey , who runs Digital-Scholarship.Com , has posted a pre-print of his contribution  "Strong Copyright + DRM + Weak Net Neutrality = Digital Dystopia?"  to the forthcoming Information Technology and Libraries . Bailey via his blog provides a nice synopsis of his piece: