Call for Action: guaranteed public access to publicly-funded research results

In the USA:

Effective this week, both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees have proposed FY08 spending bills that direct the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to change its Public Access Policy so that NIH-funded researchers are required to deposit copies of NIH-funded research into the online archive of the National Library of Medicine.
This is big step toward making the policy a success -- we need your help now more than ever.
The bills now go to the full House and the Senate for approval. To help ensure success there, we ask that all supporters contact their Representatives AND Senators with support of the proposed bills by phone or fax as soon as possible. The House is expected to convene on Tuesday, July 17, so we ask that Representatives be contacted no later than MONDAY afternoon.
Contacting your Representatives and Senators:

- ALA Legislative Action Center
- Find your Representative
- Find your Senator

And in Europe:

The German parliament just passed a new copyright law that will hinder the free exchange of scientific information. Thus, European copyright politics become more important to override this German decission in the future.

As in the US we have a movement in Europe for open access to publicly funded research results. The Petition for guaranteed public access to publicly-funded research results has been signed by nearly 26000 individuals and many institutions but of course it needs as many signatures as possible.