where is Pueblo, Colorado when you need it?

Public.Resource.org's suggestions to Obama's transition team on improving public domain access to government resources are fabulous. I hadn't known about FedFlix [FedFlix on the Internet archive, Fedflix on YouTube], but what a fabulous resource: Public.Resource.org and NTIS teamed up together to make public domain digital copies of many government videotapes.

Or how about their idea for The Library of the USA, which would not only create a fantastic archival series of curated documents, but would be a nice New Deal-style public works jobs program in a time where even libertarians are beginning to realize we need one.

And nobody can deny that right now high-speed Internet access is part of enfranchisement in modern society, and a program to bring high-speed Internet to more rural parts of America would be fabulous.

We are in prime time to do both so much good and so much harm. Traditionally, government information has been printed by the GPO, an organization which knows that its mandate from United States code includes permanent public access, and knows that all work of the United States government is in the public domain. Their digitization efforts include an understanding of the public domain. But these days, the US government publishes many documents directly to the Web, without involving the GPO, and the individual departments responsible for that publication can be unaware of their responsibilities to the public. Comedians make jokes about Dick Cheney and his shredder, but the problem goes beyond illegal government programs and secret laws. Evil people will always do evil, and it's our responsibility to stop them, but a lot of what's going on now is just carelessness and ignorance. If government departments don't know they have a responsibility to publish into the public domain, if by bypassing the FDLP with direct-to-Web publication they don't realize they are bypassing a mandate to permanent public access, then it doesn't take any evil whatsoever to deny the public our right to permanent access to these public domain materials.

Some government offices, such as the Government Accountability Office, are already on the right track. Let's make sure the new administration keeps us going the right way.

reserved for the people, not for OCLC

Thingology has been doing a good job of reporting on the dangers of the new OCLC policy [PDF] which goes into effect in February, explaining how it de facto removes work from the public domain. This is important: a private company is, by licensing terms, effectively stealing intellectual content created by government employees in the course of doing their jobs, and putting in noncompete clauses which make it implausible for these government agencies to contribute to public domain or open licensed efforts such as the Open Library. Read:

• OCLC's Proposed New Guidelines for the Transfer Bibliographic Records
• A Look at the Policy for Use and Transfer of WorldCat Records Revision
• The New OCLC Policy and Federal Libraries
• Stealing Your Library: the OCLC Power Grab
• The Elusive Moose and OCLC
• The New OCLC Policy and Federal Libraries

Then, if you are angry -- and you should be -- sign Aaron Swartz's petition. And then, if you are a librarian or a WorldCat user, sign the Petition for OCLC to Collaboratively Rewrite Policy for Use and Transfer of WorldCat Records.