[h2o-discuss] Re: "Eric Raymond: Another interesting essay"

["Tuyet A. Tran" <tatn2000@yahoo.com>]

Hi -

This is just a general question pertaining to the
free-source on another subject, medical research. Some
of the successful drug treatments for a variety of
immunosuppressed diseases derived from the results of
'free' research projects done by students and
scientists.  Peer reviewed publications in
pharmacology, virology, and/or microbiology are 
providing important sources for the drug companies to
develop commercial products that would be tested in 
clinical trials.  Isn't the concept similar to your
discussion on the economic feasibility or logic in
giving the secret codes away. These companies are
'giving' their goods away. Is it different b/c binary
codes are not tangible whereas the source for a
pioneering medical treatment is.

The universities and the R&D departments of those drug
companies are constantly churning out new findings and
publications. Over the years, their results became the
staple of financial successes for numerous drug
corporations and medical equipment manufacturers.
Forgive me but, I don't see how is this different from
the current heated discussion on open source, the
issue of ownership and/or why it does not make
economic sense. The inter-dependent relationship that
exists between academic research in medicine, science
and the commercial sectors is just one small example.
The drug companies funded a great deal of clinical
trials for teaching hospitals where the original
research results (source) came from the actual medical
school research side. How is this concept different
from the ongoing "us" against "them" (free/open source
vs claiming ownership along w/ gaining a stake in
commercial distribution)? 

Isn't it the same as when Richard Stallman received an
award which in fact came from Microsoft Corporation. 

Comments will be appreciated since I'm a newbie to the
techno-intellectual property arena. Thank you.

Tuyet A. Tran

-http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/writings/magic-cauldron/magic-cauldron.html
> 
> and
>  
> http://slashdot.org/articles/99/06/24/1659256.shtml
> 








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