[MURG] Uploading IP (intellectual property)

[Randal A. Koene]

Hi Martin,

I understand your sentiments very well!
I came into neuroscience from an electrical engineering background. Back
in the Netherlands, engineering was just beginning to be gung-ho about
patents and working as much as possible with industry. Much of the staff
at the Delft U.of.Techn. was still very positive about the open process,
with government money and the freedom to explore anything they wanted
(instead of only those things industry would find interesting). But the
times were already changing and Phillips was the biggest partner with the
elec.eng. department.

Here, doing neuroscience at Boston University (and also at McGill before
that), science still seems to be about openness, with little thought of
patents and such. It's very refreshing and liberating. I notice that
discussions are quite different and there seems to be a tendency to take
riskier propositions seriously.

Cheers,
       Randal

On Sun, 7 Mar 2004, [iso-8859-1] Martín O. Baldan wrote:

> Hi,
> I'm not a neuroscientist and this is a bit off-topic, but I can't resist to coment that I'd really like to see *less* intellectual property and more openness, in science and elesewhere. I'd like to see more iniciatives like GNU and PLOS.
>
>  As an industrial engineering student, I find it sad that the spirit of openness found in science is not present in engineering (except in software engineering, to some extent), where patents are currently the only way to make big money.
>
> I don't think it would be so difficult to finance research without resorting to state grants or IP. If many people want a particular piece of research to be carried out, they could just group together and raise the funds. This process could be interactive and anonymous if desired, working as a marketplace of projects, and it could in principle be applied to science, engineering and cultural products. Well, I'll stop drifting. My point is that, not only scientists but also many other people, appreciate the open spirit of science and would miss it if it were compromised by IP.
>
> yours,
>
>               Martin O. Baldan
>
>
> On    Thu, 4 Mar 2004 09:42:20 -0500 (EST)
>
> Randal A. Koene  wrote:
>
>
> >Hi YKY,
>
> >When you consider a consortium that controls IP, how do you imagine it
> >will be received by scientists? Do you think it will be warmly received or
> >that it may stir up misgivings? Judging only by the responses you've had
> >on this mailing list, I wonder if you've correctly taken into account the
> >sentiments and reactions of the scientists that you wish to involve.
>
> >Cheers,
>  >      Randal
>