See this letter from 46 law professors and specialists in copyright law for a brilliant defense of the NIH Green OA Self-Archiving Mandate against the absurd charges of the publisher’s lobby and its attorneys in the Conyers Bill.

I generally avoid the legal aspects of OA because I can see so clearly that 100% Green OA can be quickly and easily achieved without having to waste a single minute on legal obstacles (via the IDOA Mandate). But this is such an articulate and rigorous set of legal arguments that I could not resist posting them further just for the delight of the ineluctable logic alone.

Read, enjoy, admire, and rest assured that whether via the legalisticroute or just good, practical sense, OA will prevail. It is optimal, inevitable, and irresistible. The anti-OA lobby is wasting its money in trying to invoke law or laws to stop it; at best, they can just buy a bit more time. (But if universities and funders opt directly for IDOA mandates, that will deny the anti-OA lobby even that.)

Stevan Harnad
American Scientist Open Access Forum

PS Unless I am mistaken, one detects the unseen legal hand and mind of Peter Suber, plus a goodly dose of the seen hand and mind of Michael Carroll in the drafting of this legal and logical masterpiece.