Paula Le Dieu is talking about Science Commons, a new area from the people behind the Creative Commmons licences. This is starting to look at getting scientific data out in the open.
Using the example of p53, a gene theat is associated with cancer and other diseases. But cancer research and cures is lucrative to the drugs companies, so much of their research is patented. So research into other diseases associated with the gene that is not as lucative can be compromised. Of the 33000 articles in PubMed search, only about 6000 are open with full text. Others are hidden, you can’t access the full text, the knowledge is owned and will not be shared. So scientific knowledge is constrained by copyright and patents. DRM is being applied to the environments which hold the information. Users can only rent, not buy, and access stops if you stop paying.
One way forward is based on CCMixter, which tracks where stuff came form and where it is used going forward, so history and impact is tracked. From the scientists’ view, it’s easier to see how a piece of work is used.
