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[News] Free Software Values of Openness to Hopefully Inspire Politicians

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Transparent techies gather in Oxford

,----[ Quote ]
| The end of July will see a British BarCamp in Oxford to discuss transparency 
| and openness in government, cyber activism, data and identity protection and 
| the ethics of social media.  
`----

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/05/25/barcamp_oxford/


Recent:

Transparency against malpractic

,----[ Quote ]
| As a result of my new enthusiasm to 'get out more' I found myself listening
| to a detailed and balanced 'non-advocacy' presentation from a respected OSS
| Watch staffer.
|
| He explained patiently how open source licencing worked and how it differed
| from proprietary licences. But what he did say whilst looking for an everyday
| resonance to make his points accessible to a non-geek audience, and which
| really sharpened every-one's attention, was that proprietary software was
| built on secret code whereas open source software had transparent code.
|
| Proprietary software IS composed of secret code. You can't read it, you don't
| know what it does (other than what you can see it do), you don't know how it
| does it and you can't change it.
`----

http://www.siriusit.co.uk/myblog/secret-code-and-the-damage-it-does-to-our-society.html


No bottom to worse at Elsevier?

,----[ Quote ]
| The latest development, though, strikes me as something that should be
| shouted from every available rooftop: Elsevier simply must answer the
| questions raised.
|
| Via Dorothea: Jonathan Rochkind has done a little "forensic librarianship"
| and raised astonishing questions about the entire imprint, Excerpta Medica,
| which published the fake journal that started all of this.
|
| Go read Jonathan, but the bottom line is this: Excerpta Medica does not
| provide a straightforward list of its own publications or make clear which
| are, ahem, "industry-sponsored".
`----

http://www.sennoma.net/main/archives/2009/05/no_bottom_to_worse_at_elsevier.php


Another Reason We Need Open Access

,----[ Quote ]
| One of the more laughable reasons that traditional science publishers cite in
| their attempts to rubbish open access is that it's somehow not so rigorous
| as "their" kind of publishing. There's usually a hint that standards might be
| dropped, and that open access journals aren't, well, you know, quite proper.
`----

http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2009/05/another-reason-we-need-open-access.html


Merck Makes Phony Peer-Review Journal

,----[ Quote ]
| It is this attitude within companies like Merck and among doctors that allows
| scandals precisely like this to happen. While the scandals with Merck and
| Vioxx are particularly egregious, we know they are not isolated incidents.
| This one is just particularly so. If physicians would not lend their names or
| pens to these efforts, and publishers would not offer their presses, these
| publications could not exist. What doctors would have as available data would
| be peer-reviewed research and what pharmaceutical companies produce from
| their marketing departments--actual advertisements.
`----

http://blog.bioethics.net/2009/05/merck-makes-phony-peerreview-journal/


Merck And Elsevier Exposed For Creating Fake Peer Review Journal

,----[ Quote ]
| Of course, this is exactly the sort of thing that you can do when everything
| is locked up and proprietary, rather than open. There's almost no way to
| confirm or check the data or information to make sure it's legit, so people
| tend to assume it is. In that regard, perhaps it's no surprise that the two
| companies eventually went down this road, but it does highlight one of the
| problems with the way the system works today. As Shirky later points out this
| is hardly unique for a firm like Elsevier, which has faced some serious
| ethical questions regarding its publications in the past as well.
`----

http://techdirt.com/articles/20090503/1255574725.shtml


Related:

The serials crisis has a name, and it's Reed Elsevier.

,----[ Quote ]
| Mind you, I don't mean to imply that we should launch another boycott;
| reigning in Elsevier's profit margins and/or market share would do little to
| offset the serials crisis. The only answer to that, in the long term, is Open
| Access, because it scales where Toll access doesn't. No, this entry is not
| really about OA at all, it's just a little kick in the shins for my favorite
| Greedy Bastard Publishers.
`----

http://www.sennoma.net/main/archives/2008/12/the_serials_crisis_has_a_name.php


Elsevier steals, then copyrights other people's free stuff

,----[ Quote ]
| Reed Elsevier caught copying my content without my permission:
|
|     I was not asked for, and did not give, permission for my work to appear
|     on that page, much less in that format. Needless to say, I felt a little
|     slighted.
|
|     The website in question appears to be a custom version of the LexisNexis
|     search engine. This particular version appears to be Elsevier's own
|     custom version, intended for internal use. I don't have conclusive proof
|     of that, but the title bar at the top of the page reads, "Elsevier
|     Corporate", and the person who accessed my blog from that page had an IP
|     address that's registered to MD Consult, which is an Elsevier subsidiary.
|     My guess is that Elsevier's keeping track of news articles and blog posts
|     that mention them, along with the context in which they're mentioned.
|
| [...]
|
| Reed Elsevier Is Stealing My Words:
|
|     I received an email from ScienceBlogling Mike Dunford that Reed Elsevier
|     had excerpted one of my posts. No problem there--I like it when people
|     read my stuff....except for one thing:
|
|     The fuckers copyrighted my words.
|
| Copyright violation?:
|
|     Apparently, publishing companies don't always get permission for the
|     materials they use, either. Mike Dunford caught Reed Elsevier copying his
|     content without permission (from Stephen Downes).
`----

http://scienceblogs.com/clock/2008/08/elsevier_steals_then_copyright.php
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