Martin Franco wrote:
On Thu, Jun 12, 2008 at 11:25:27AM -0700, Gregory K. Ruiz-Ade wrote:
In my experience, people who insist that the GPL is the answer and
copyright should be abolished don't see the whole picture.
The free software and the scientific communities have a lot in common.
In both, it's often the case that making money off your work is
difficult, though sometimes possible if you leave the community (hoard
your knowledge, get patents or proprietary licenses, etc.). Both
flourish in the least capitalist of places--universities, publicly
funded institutions (government), and labs of large corporations.
Actually, there is some evidence that the whole broadening of patents
has damaged our research situation dramatically.
For instance, there is evidence that professors at several of the major
universities were hoarding their good ideas for external compensation or
starting a company and only allowing their students to work on ideas
they expected would fail.
See analyses of the Bayh-Dole Act and modern patents.
-a
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