[open-science] [SCHOLCOMM] Libre open access, copyright, patent law, and, other intellectual property matters

Wed Mar 21 17:08:43 UTC 2012

On Mar 21, 2012, at 11:37 AM, Ross Mounce wrote:

> My recommendation to them was CC-BY or CC0, but it was felt that many
> of the 'best' museum institutions that could/ought to contribute data
> to their database absolutely won't contribute *anything* under such
> permissive licences. [Why this is the case, I do not know, but I
> suspect it is true to a certain extent]

A related myth is that evil entities will take our noble data, add value to it, and then charge others to use it.

1. If they have indeed added value worth paying for, then all strength to them, and they should be able to charge for it. Looking at it from the other end, no one will add value to it if they don't believe they would somehow benefit from it.

2. If they haven't added value worth paying for and are still charging for them, well then caveat emptor and all that aka "a fool who can't search the web is soon parted from his money."

3. And, finally, the original is still available for free for anyone to use, so no one has been cordoned off from anything.

This myth was possibly what caused OpenStreetMaps to create its original restrictive licensing that they are now trying to shed.

It happens all the time -- we get religion, and we start wanting others to do as we do, little realizing that we end up being no different from those we don't want to be like. It is all the more galling for us in higher research who are most always paid a rather comfortable salary and expenses anyway for our work.

Which is why I decided to go with nothing
http://punkish.org/Freedom-Is-Just-Another-Word-When-Youve-Nothing-Left-to-Choose

--
Puneet Kishor 