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more on In Defense of University Patent Licensing (04.23.2003)
From: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 13:51:53 -0700
------ Forwarded Message From: "David P. Reed" <dpreed () reed com> Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 08:53:17 -0400 To: dave () farber net, ip <ip () v2 listbox com> Subject: Re: [IP] In Defense of University Patent Licensing (04.23.2003) One thing worth considering in this debate is that government funded research was the rationale for Bayh-Dole, yet today the research is more and more corporate-funded, as the government does less and less. The issue is not Bayh-Dole, per se. The real problem is that basic research (which is difficult to productize) is being distorted by the desire to create "fundable units" that can be owned by corporations and exploited directly and immediately. One of the impacts is that since most corporations (there are wise folks in some corporations, thank goodnees) see patents as the only measurable outcome that they can justify to their investors, there is great pressure to make basic science patentable, in order to allow basic research to compete for corporate funds. It takes little imagination to see that quantum electrodynamics and information theory, algorithmic complexity theory and cryptography, and systems design principles are not easily turned into exclusive intellectual property without destroying most or all of the economic goods therein. The dangerous thing is not what BU does with its patents. The dangerous thing is that BU's management thinks its research agenda ought to be organized around "knowledge as property". In other words, the problem is the shift from thinking of knowledge as it has always been (a collective human enterprise), to thinking of all knowledge as "intellectual property". This is a completely bankrupt and intellectually indefensible idea, about as intelligent as thinking that we could best manage our water resources by declaring each bucketful of rain as the "property" of the person whose land it happened to fall on. (if this last idea sounds even slightly reasonable, I'd suggest that you have already been brainwashed, and might want to think why you think that way). ------ End of Forwarded Message ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as interesting-people () lists elistx com To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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- more on In Defense of University Patent Licensing (04.23.2003) Dave Farber (Apr 23)