Owning Scientific and Technical Information: Ethical Issues

In recent years, scientific discoveries and new technologies - as well as new, intricate relationships among academic researchers, government, and private industry - have begun to pose a whole range of novel problems in intellectual property rights. Should computer software be patented or copyrighted? How can ownership of plant varieties, genetically engineered organisms, and their products be protected? Should body parts and cell lines derived from them be patented? What is the impact of changes in intellectual property rights on the process of scientific research and development?

Beyond the practical questions and their economic implications lie important ethical and philosophical ones. Should ideas and information be owned at all? How should the proprietary rights of the inventor be balanced against society’s right to the free flow of information and equal access to the use of a discovery? Should the idea itself be regarded as property, or only the form in which it is expressed?

The fifteen essays in this volume provide a solid foundation for any discussion of these issues. They survey the current intellectual property system in the U.S., describe several important historical precedents, explore ongoing controversies in computer science and biotechnology, and offer critiques of leading moral and legal theories about ownership of knowledge. This book is invaluable for anyone who has to deal with questions of intellectual property in theory or in everyday practice.