"Open Access and the Public Domain in Digital Data and Information for Science: Proceedings of an International Symposium"

Summary: "The proceedings are now online of a meeting which expressed concern in April 2003 at the growing tendency of governments to treat public-funded research as a commodity. The participants were particularly preoccupied by the implications for scientists in developing countries of growing restrictions on access to digital data and information. They asked themselves, 'How do we preserve and promote access to open science without unduly restricting commercial opportunities and the moral rights of authors? Many of the meeting's conclusions fed into the first round of the World Summit on the Information Society eight months later. The meeting on open access and the public domain was co-organized at UNESCO Headquarters by UNESCO, ICSU and its Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA), the US National Academy of Sciences and the International Council for Scientific and Technical Information (ICSTI). For an account of discussions, read 'What future for open science?' published in A World of Science in July 2003. The PDF version of the Proceedings may be downloaded free of charge courtesy of The National Academies Press, in keeping with the spirit of open access." UNESCO, 2004. (HTML, the PDF version of the complete report can also be downloaded.)