White House petition to bring down paywalls on taxpayer-funded research

Why waste time with this kind of thing? Is there any evidence that any congressional office or other significant legislative influence checks the "White House petition site" and uses it as a serious barometer of public interest? It just seems like a distraction, a waste of energy. Why not call your Congressperson instead? Why not start a rally that will be picked up by the local news station? Why not get everyone you know to call your Congressperson on the matter? These things all seem much more effective than promoting a petition on whitehouse.gov.

Seems like this should be the default; that publicly funded research is free for the public.

whitehouse.gov petitions have proven to be an absolutely useless way to effect change or even to raise awareness of issues. In the best case scenario a "successful" petition is met with nothing more than a form letter.<p>If you want to stand up and be heard contact your senators and your congressional reps and send a separate letter to the whitehouse as well. Don't waste your time with these useless virtual petitions.

I would go further: Any intellectual property funded with taxpayer money should be put in the public domain.

Is this important when stuff like the items below is going on:<p><a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/mhastings/congressmen-seek-to-lift-propaganda-ban" rel="nofollow">http://www.buzzfeed.com/mhastings/congressmen-seek-to-lift-p...</a><p>and<p><a href="http://www.salon.com/2012/05/16/obamas_new_free_speech_threat/singleton/" rel="nofollow">http://www.salon.com/2012/05/16/obamas_new_free_speech_threa...</a>