Abstract
The American Council on Education (ACE) and EDUCAUSE submitted a letter to the U.S. Department of Education (ED) about its notice of proposed rule-making (NPRM) on open licensing. In the NPRM, ED states its intention to require “that all Department grantees awarded direct competitive grant funds openly license to the public all copyrightable intellectual property created with Department grant funds.” EDUCAUSE and ACE express strong support for open licensing, but note that the broad nature of the proposed regulation requires that ED consult more directly with the higher education community before proceeding. For example, the letter cites unresolved concerns by researchers about the impact of the regulation on institutional/private sector partnerships as well as possible conflicts with other laws.