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September 2001 could mark the beginning of a fundamental restructuring of the relationship between scientists and the institutions that publish their research, as well as the start of an era in which scientific information is exchanged over the Internet as easily, and freely, as MP3 music files were swapped through the Napster portal.

While they haven't explicitly referenced the troubled Napster music exchange system, a group of scientists is pressing the scientific community to enforce the "information wants to be free" ethic by boycotting any scientific journal that does not agree by September to relinquish rights to information six months after publication. ...