We could turn the question around: Why remove any restrictions at all? The answer is to share knowledge and accelerate research. Barrier-free access helps readers find and retrieve the research they need, and helps authors reach readers who can apply, cite and build on their work. Knowledge has always been a “public good” in the theoretical sense that consumption doesn’t deplete it (it’s “nonrivalrous”) and consumption is available to all (it’s “nonexcludable”). OA makes knowledge a public good in practice.

via Peter Suber: Free and Open | berfrois.

Bottom line: The companies involved in the transaction can credibly claim that the deal itself is not going to change the facts on the ground for most Americans. Without “merger-specific harms,” and with an impressive display of bureaucratic sleight-of-hand – FCC got the spectrum part of the deal but DOJ got the joint marketing arrangements, and the two agencies have different statutory authority and DNA, leading to lots of finger-pointing and careful behavior – the companies will avoid being interfered with unduly by the feds.

via When Competition Is Cooked, Consumers Are Toast | Wired Business | Wired.com.

“When it comes to Internet usage by youth, some adults might indeed overreact or overprotect their kids,” said Urs Gasser, author of “Digital Natives” and executive director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. “Much of it might have to do with a lack of understanding what happens online and what the benefits of the Internet are, but also where the real problems are.”

via Internet etiquette can lower kids’ risks: Parents’ values, oversight help protect against online dangers – KansasCity.com.

Bost’s invention, which is still in the “proof of concept” stage, was on display at openLAB_Summer, an Aug. 9 showcase sponsored by metaLAB at Harvard, a Kirkland Street collaborative research laboratory under the umbrella of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society. Organizers called the dozen offerings on display “summer projects and propositions, experiments and explorations.”

via Wedding digital with traditional | Harvard Gazette.

Over the past few years, a global pact meant to curb online piracy and the trade of counterfeit goods called the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA, has been negotiated in secret. After popular outcry it seems ACTA may not materialize. While 9 countries and 22 European Union member states have signed on, none have ratified it, and last month, the EU parliament roundly rejected it. Brooke asks Harvard Law Professor Jonathan Zittrain if ACTA is actually dead.

via The Copyright Treaty That Won’t Die – On The Media.

On 16 July 2012, three major announcements transformed open access policy in the United Kingdom. The Research Councils UK RCUK announced a stronger version of the open access policy it originally adopted in 2006.1 2 The UK minister of universities and science announced that the government had accepted most of the recent open access recommendations from the Working Group on Expanding Access to Published Research Findings that he appointed last September informally called the Finch group after its convener, Janet Finch.3 4 5 Finally, the Higher Education Funding Council for England HEFCE announced plans to require open access to research submitted to the next Research Excellence Framework in 2014.6

via Ensuring open access for publicly funded research | BMJ.

Jonathan Zittrain, a specialist in internet law at Harvard, thinks the commercial pressures Twitter is now coming under are not dissimilar from the incentive a magazine might feel to pull articles that could upset a major advertiser. “It sounds like Twitter is trying to articulate, and enforce, the kinds of editorial separation that reputable magazines have long embraced.”

via Twitter confronts ethics of commercial pressures in wake of Guy Adams ‘mess’ | Technology | guardian.co.uk.

David O’Brien, Urs Gasser, and John G. Palfrey Jr. of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University recently released a briefing document, “E-Books in Libraries.” Drawing from a wide variety of sources, the document does an excellent job of summarizing the status to date of library ebook lending.

via Berkman Center Looks at Ebooks in Libraries | American Libraries Magazine.