Agitating for innovation through open licensing and good technology. This Chemspider licensing brouhaha is generating some needed discussions around open data, and something I keep hearing about is that it is GPL v. It is a damn shame that we no longer think of the public domain as an option that is ...
opendotdotdot.blogspot.com
I write a lot about licensing here. Indeed, licensing arguably lies at the heart of free software. But there's another important way of looking at things, which is essentially licence-less, as John Wilbanks reminds us:
Found 4 days, 18 hours, 33 minutes, and 15 seconds ago
sennoma.net
Scientific data are not only hard to come by, they're almost as hard to share, mainly because the scientific infrastructure is armpit-deep and sinking fast in the quicksand of patents, copyrights and ever-multiplying licenses. See Peter Murray-Rust , Antony Williams and Egon Willighagen for the latest dust-up over data licensing; I just want to point out this clear-eyed commentary by John Wilbanks : The public domain is not an "unlicensed commons". The public domain does not equal the BSD.
Found 4 days, 18 hours, 33 minutes, and 22 seconds ago
boycottnovell.com
This is not directly related to the above, but consider the economic impact of licensing, which is bound only to punish and suppress entrants, or those at the bottom . [via Glyn Moody]
It is a damn shame that we no longer think of the public domain as an option that is attractive. It's a sign of the victory of the content holders that the free licensing movements work against that something without a license - something that is truly free, not just just free "as in" - is somehow thought to be worse.
Found 4 days, 18 hours, 33 minutes, and 6 seconds ago
blog.openwetware.org
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Following on from the discussion a few weeks back kicked off by Shirley at One Big Lab and continued here I've been thinking about how to actually turn what was a throwaway comment into reality:
What is being generated here is new science, and science isn't paid for per se . The resources that generate science are supported by governments, charities, and industry but the actual production of science is not supported. The truly radical approach to this would be to turn the system on its head.
Found 4 days, 18 hours, 32 minutes, and 55 seconds ago
