Open Access Law: Let the Articles Out

As a soon-to-be academic, I'm very pleased to see my alma mater Harvard Journal of Law & Technology on the list of signatories to the newly launched Open Access Law Program, at Science Commons.

The OAL Program encourages law journals to commit to a set of OAL Journal Principles. These Principles require that a journal 1) take only a limited term license, 2) provide a citable copy of the final version of the article, and 3) provide public access to the journal's standard publishing contract. In return, the author promises to attribute first publication to the journal.

Legal scholarship can only gain by wider circulation. Open access makes articles available to readers outside of ivory towers, bringing new participants -- and new ideas -- to the conversation.

Code: The Book Club

Don't miss Ed Felten's online book club, over at Freedom to Tinker:

Freedom to Tinker is hosting an online book club discussion of Lawrence Lessig's book Code, and Other Laws of Cyberspace. Lessig has created a wiki (an online collaborative space) with the text of the book, and he is encouraging everyone to edit the wiki to help create a new edition of the book.

Don't forget you can read and help revise for the second edition on the Code wiki.