Re: Open Access & Conservation Commons

["Peter Banks" <pbanks@diabetes.org>]

To argue, as several have, that a variety of creative common licenses are
available is like proponents of the Atkins diet arguing that low-fat meat
choices are an option under the diet.

Yes, they are--but the true believers of Open Access and Atkins promote
one and only one choice. The Berlin Declaration and the Bethesda Statement
agree that authors must surrender all rights for all eternity.

Berlin states: "The author(s) and right holder(s) of such contributions
grant(s) to all users a free, irrevocable, worldwide, right of access to,
and a license to copy, use, distribute, transmit and display the work
publicly and to make and distribute derivative works, in any digital
medium for any responsible purpose, subject to proper attribution of
authorship (community standards, will continue to provide the mechanism
for enforcement of proper attribution and responsible use of the published
work, as they do now), as well as the right to make small numbers of
printed copies for their personal use."

The "community standards" clause is as meaningless as it daffily naive.
The person who wrote this never wrote a "cease and desist" letter to some
slimy character who misappropriated a work. Face it, if a company
appropriates a researcher's cancer research to promote the "Cancer-B-Gone
Herbal Remedy," there's no recourse under this agreement, which is touted
as God's gift to authors.

Peter Banks
Publisher
American Diabetes Association
1701 North Beauregard Street
Alexandria, VA 22311
703/299-2033
FAX 703/683-2890
Email: pbanks@diabetes.org