AAAS meeting - is this one for embargo watch?

Giving a talk at the AAAS meeting in February in Vancouver.  I have avoided AAAS meetings previously because I do not like AAAS's position on open access issues.  Given that AAAS is at least indirectly a supporter of the recent Research Works Act I am pondering whether or not I will boycott the meeting.   While I ponder that -- I thought I would share the presenter instructions I just got from AAAS (see below).

Apparently, my talk is "embargoed" - though I am not sure I understand how that works for a talk (see the part I highlighted in yellow which, well, I almost certainly will not be following).  I do not understand actually what a talk embargo means - am I supposed to not share with people what I am working on so that every piece of data I present at the meeting will never have ben seen by anyone?  Or am I just not supposed to show my talk to anyone?  What exactly is a talk embargo?  And what will they do when I do not follow it?  Maybe Ivan Oransky knows.



I note - I am surprised AAAS does not try to require me to sign over rights to my presentation to them ...

This request for materials is from the AAAS media relations team and is separate from any you may receive from your symposium organizer or the AAAS Annual Meeting office.

----------------------------------------

Dear AAAS Annual Meeting Participant:

If you have already uploaded your materials to the Virtual Newsroom for the 2012 AAAS Annual Meeting in Vancouver, thank you and please disregard the rest of this e-mail.

For those speakers who have not submitted materials, we'd appreciate your prompt attention to this request. We expect a good turnout of reporters at the meeting in February, and we'd like to provide them as much information as possible about your presentation.

Symposium organizers can help as well by uploading relevant papers or overview documents and encouraging your speakers to submit materials. Papers and speaker materials are for use by reporters in preparing stories and are not made available to general registrants at the meeting.

Speakers and organizers can submit materials by going to:
http://www.eurekalert.org/aaasnewsroom/mcm/speakers

Your individual username and password for the site:

Username: xxxx
Password: xxxx

Please provide the following:

-- A one-paragraph biographical sketch (not a C.V.)

-- A short lay-language summary of your talk, beyond the abstract.

-- The text of your talk, if available, or a related (ideally recent) technical paper, either as a Word file or a PDF. PowerPoint presentations are acceptable, but a full text will better serve reporters' needs.

-- Any additional supporting materials, including multimedia files such as JPEG or TIFF photos in high resolution (300 dpi) and/or digitized video clips.

IMPORTANT: Please note that all AAAS meeting presentations are strictly embargoed and your speaker materials should not be released publicly until the time of your presentation.

If you upload your materials by 16 January, we will copy them at our expense for placement in the on-site library of speaker materials, available only to newsroom registrants.

Please notify your institution's press office of your AAAS Annual Meeting presentation as soon as possible. Your press office can help you submit speaker materials to us and can begin to generate media interest.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.