Respected professors Joseph Stiglitz and John Sulston want to re-open the question of who owns what in science.
Sulston, who received a Nobel prize for his work on sequencing the nematode worm, is heading up the University of Manchester’s new Institute for Science, Ethics and Innovation and he wants to create a ‘Manchester Manifesto’. According to the press release this will try to “lay down a consensus on intellectual property in science”.
In a letter to the London Times Sulston and Stiglitz, economist and chair of the university’s Brooks World Poverty Institute, say:
It is now widely recognised that the system of law and practice that has regulated science and protected the rights of those who make scientific discoveries and turn them into products and therapies in a process known as “innovation” is unfit to serve the needs of the contemporary world.
They go on to call for a reassessment of intellectual property rights and patents to determine “whether it is liberating — or crushing; whether it operates to promote scientific progress and human welfare – or to frustrate it”. They also say that the results and knowledge generated through research should be freely accessible.
In a news article the Times highlights that the pair think progress could be being impeded by intellectual property laws. The BBC takes a similar tack in ‘Sulston argues for open medicine’. See also Intellectual Property Watch’s piece.
The S&S position is going down well with open-access advocates
“I hope that this message finds its way to the policy makers in academia as they have the power and the responsibility to act,” says chemist Peter Murray-Rust says on his blog. “In many cases the academic staff are unable to find the information they want or to allow it to reach those that they would hope to collaborate with. Not only are there patent and copyright restrictions, but universities often sign draconian contracts with the gatekeepers of scientific information.”
Duncan Hull sets out seven groups who might claim to own science on his blog, well, six if you allow that ‘nobody’ isn’t really a group. He’s got photos of the debate too.