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Meanwhile, conversations about making digital sequence information databases into a pay-as-you-go resource continue vis a vis the Nagoya Protocol to the Convention on Biological Diversity. </div>
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While this may be a simplification, there is significant push back from "provider" parties who suggest that access to genetic data is not enough of a shared benefit and that some monetary benefit sharing should be established. <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">This
is a significant impediment to open data sharing and creates pressure for private rather than public data resources. </span></div>
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<div style=""><font color="#000000" face="Trebuchet MS, Trebuchet, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">The CBD held a fact finding study, and
</span><span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">subsequently</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> hosted an ad hoc technical expert group to discuss digital sequence information. </span></font><a href="https://www.cbd.int/abs/dsi-gr/2017-2018/default.shtml" id="LPNoLP740199" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">https://www.cbd.int/abs/dsi-gr/2017-2018/default.shtml</a></div>
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The output of this first "ahteg" was a weak, non conclusive document that spawned a repeat meeting which will be held next winter <a href="https://www.cbd.int/abs/dsi-gr/2019-2020/default.shtml" id="LPNoLP755432">https://www.cbd.int/abs/dsi-gr/2019-2020/default.shtml</a> Indeed,
they could not even agree on what digital sequence information was with obstructive participants insisting that meta data was equivalent to sequence data.</div>
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Moreover, the first "ahteg" included participants who were not technical experts. One (representing Namibia and the African bloc) suggested that genome sequence databases were "like kiddie porn" and this was only challenged by a representative of a ngo- neither
the CBD secretariat or the facilitator saw that this comment was neither technical or expert. <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Another (representing the "third world network") exhorted
the technical experts to "just be honest" which was again only challenged by the ngo representative. </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Other "technical experts" to the first ahteg
included representatives of the international chamber of commerce, the WHO, and something called the </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">ABS Capacity Development Initiative </span></div>
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Questions, such as how much data is generated from materials sourced in developing nations, who accesses these data sets, and whether the data is used for scientific publication (including co-authorship by scientists in developing nations), or in commercial
products remain un-answered. <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Maybe codata has experts who can look at these types of questions. Certainly genbank, entrez, gold, ddbj, riken, and the
myriad of organism specific genome databases would be impacted by any pay-as-you-go or subscription model for access to genetic databases.</span></div>
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<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">In this instance, open access to data is threatened by a desire to monitor utilization and tie it to benefit sharing. It has been my contention (not shared
by everyone) that the solution to the digital sequence information problem lies in the data itself. If a party can show that a genetic trait is unique to their sovereign territory, then they should have unique exclusive rights to the utilization of that information.
If, however, that specific genetic sequence is present in organisms from many parties (countries), then one party should not have exclusive rights to the utilization of that information. The key here is that the data on geographic distribution of the specific
genetic sequence (or variant thereof) is the answer to the question of who has the right to control utilization of that information.</span></div>
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<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">best regards,</span></div>
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Kevin McCluskey</p>
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Research Professor, Ret<br>
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<div id="divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" color="#000000" style="font-size:11pt"><b>From:</b> CODATA-international <codata-international-bounces@lists.codata.org> on behalf of Mwitondi, Kassim <K.Mwitondi@shu.ac.uk><br>
<b>Sent:</b> Saturday, October 12, 2019 2:14 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> Falk Huettmann <fhuettmann@alaska.edu>; BOULTON Geoffrey <Geoff.Boulton@ed.ac.uk><br>
<b>Cc:</b> CODATA International <codata-international@lists.codata.org><br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [CODATA-international] Digital Feudalism</font>
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