The sponsors of the Research Works Act, Reps. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) issued a joint statement declaring that bill was dead in Congress:
The introduction of HR 3699 has spurred a robust, expansive debate on the topics of scientific and scholarly publishing, intellectual property protection, and public access to federally funded research. Since its introduction, we have heard from numerous stakeholders and interested parties on both sides of this important issue.As the costs of publishing continue to be driven down by new technology, we will continue to see a growth in open access publishers. This new and innovative model appears to be the wave of the future. The transition must be collaborative, and must respect copyright law and the principles of open access. The American people deserve to have access to research for which they have paid. This conversation needs to continue and we have come to the conclusion that the Research Works Act has exhausted the useful role it can play in the debate. As such, we want Americans concerned about access to research and other participants in this debate to know we will not be taking legislative action on HR 3699, the Research Works Act. We do intend to remain involved in efforts to examine and study the protection of intellectual property rights and open access to publicly funded research.
Right before this statement, Elsevier withdrew its support of the bill. That led Peter Suber to declare:
This is a victory for what The Economist called Academic Spring. It shows that academic discontent -- expressed in blogs, social media, conventional media, boycotts, and open letters to Congress -- can defeat legislation supported by a determined and well-funded lobby. Let's remember that, and let's prove that this political force can go beyond defeating bad legislation, like #RWA , to enacting good legislation, like #FRPAA.Posted by stemp003 at March 2, 2012 10:50 AM