Monday, January 02, 2012

UPDATE! Retracting Retraction recommendation of Nature's Scientific Reports

Update January 20, 2012. I am delighted to report that Nature Publishing Group has clarified that they do not support SOPA, PIPA, or the anti-OA lobbying effort called the Research Works Act.

This post is retained for historical purposes.

Recently I pointed to Nature Publishing Group's Scientific Reports as a good example for Creative Commons licensing. Today, I found out that Macmillan, owner of NPG, is actively supporting the U.S. based Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), arguably the worst thing ever proposed for the Internet, as reported by the U.S. Congress via gizmodo

My recommendation of NPG as a good model for CC licensing is hereby retracted. No company involved in lobbying for greater copyright restrictions can be considered a good model. My current recommendation is for authors to stop publishing with NPG, and librarians please rank NPG and other Macmillan products on your cancellation lists, until such time as Macmillan publicly disavows support for SOPA.

Consumer action against SOPA is critical - librarians and scholars, note the publishers involved and TELL THEM TO STOP SUPPORTING SOPA!

Update - contact information for the Nature Publishing Group Executive Committee can be found here