Publishers Nature Publishing Group (NPG), Digital Science and Palgrave have issued a joint statement on the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) legislations in the US. NPG, Digital Science and Palgrave provide a range of publications, information and digital services to a wide variety of customers, including scientists, scholars, teachers and students, as well as members of the public.
The parties are concerned that the approaches proposed by the SOPA and PIPA, currently under consideration by the US federal government, are likely to create unintended counterproductive effects in many of the communities they serve, and to the functionality of the Internet itself. NPG, Digital Science and Palgrave have therefore decided not to support SOPA or PIPA.
The companies have said that they support appropriate and proportionate initiatives to protect copyright and other forms of intellectual property for the benefit of its creators and society as a whole. While they support actions that effectively target the systematic illegal sharing of copyrighted works, they do not support approaches that would undermine and put at risk the legitimate activities of their customers and other responsible users.
The publishers have stated that as innovative and progressive publishing and technology companies, they seek to enable the open exchange of ideas, especially in scholarly communities. This is because, according to them, it is ultimately the main way in which human knowledge is created and disseminated, a process that they exist to support. They believe that the proposed legislation could unintentionally harm this process. In addition, the proposed interference with the infrastructure of the Internet is seen to risk unintended consequences that could reduce its benefits for everyone.
The companies were represented by Timo Hannay, Managing Director, Digital Science; Steven Inchcoombe, Managing Director, Nature Publishing Group; and Dominic Knight, Managing Director, Palgrave.
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