[CODATA-international] Brown (2020) Big Secret in the Academy (article) on Open Access and lack thereof

Thu May 28 14:40:35 EDT 2020

Dear Fraser,

what I actually meant to suggest is, to have the "full story", with 
pertinent details, such as, here:

- how did these companies come to know of this Indigenous knowledge?
- what was that knowledge about, in detail?
- what or which derivative of that knowledge did the company claim to own?
- what was the legal device they used? (patent?)
- did the indigenous people suffer any negative consequences beyond 
not getting a fair financial share.

About the last three questions: As to my knowledge, you cannot patent 
or "copyright" generic "knowledge".
AFAIK, if someone just copyrights a description of knowledge (before 
patenting any application), everybody can make use of it.

best,

Hans

Am 28.05.20 um 19:54 schrieb Fraser Taylor:
> There are  examples of Private companies  using Indigenous knowledge 
> of the medical properties of plants for their own commercial 
> advantage and copywriting or patenting that knowledge without the 
> knowledge or consent of the communities involved .
>
> Get Outlook for iOS <https://aka.ms/o0ukef>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* CODATA-international 
> <codata-international-bounces at lists.codata.org> on behalf of Hans 
> Pfeiffenberger <hp at hans-pfeiffenberger.de>
> *Sent:* Thursday, May 28, 2020 1:28:03 PM
> *To:* codata-international at lists.codata.org 
> <codata-international at lists.codata.org>
> *Subject:* Re: [CODATA-international] Brown (2020) Big Secret in the 
> Academy (article) on Open Access and lack thereof
> [External Email]
>
> Am 28.05.20 um 16:28 schrieb Fraser Taylor:
>> The protection of Indigenous knowledge is very important and this 
>> is covered in Article Six. The reality however is that the issues 
>> covered by the article are so broad that anyone wishing to keep 
>> their data private can do so. This was an uneasy compromise but the 
>> general thrust to keep data open is clear.
>
>
> The phrase "there are legitimate reasons to restrict access to and 
> reuse of data, including interests of national security, law 
> enforcement, privacy, confidentiality, intellectual property" has 
> been part of every declaration on open data of the last decade I am 
> aware of, which has been (formally) endorsed by major institutions. 
> At least in the case of those I was involved in, I happen to know 
> that without it there would have been no endorsement.
>
> The only part of that phrase I am truly comfortable with is the word 
> "legitimate": Exactly because the clause is so broad and vague, and, 
> in the better declarations, it is bracketed by the principle "as 
> open as possible, as closed as necessary" and the requirement of 
> "express justification" (in each case), each case of not disclosing 
> data can be subjected to scrutiny and the onus is on the person, 
> institution or country holding it back.
>
> Falk made us aware of an interesting article. While it it does not 
> fully justify the claim in the title that "Most Research Is Secret" 
> (that may just be true in the US) - it unrolls the unfortunate 
> consequences of research compromised by secrecy. This article and 
> its topic of health physics provide a very clear rationale why, in 
> this case, there was no legitimacy to keeping research results secret.
>
> It would perhaps be good to assemble a collection of case studies - 
> such as this one, but also ones that underpin valid, legitimate 
> reasons *for* restrictions  - to help guide the ethically and 
> scientifically sound evaluation of the justifications of 
> restrictions. (Of course, such studies would need to be subject to, 
> preferably open, peer review and/or other quality control, to avoid 
> being misled by narrative based on false claims.)
>
> For example, which detrimental things happen when Indigenous 
> knowledge is made openly available?
> I somehow remember a case in the UK, where the tobacco industry 
> tried to use a "freedom of information" act to get at data from a 
> study on how juveniles acquired the addiction to smoking - and 
> anyone can guess how they would have used it. Scientific rules might 
> have said that data should best be open to scrutiny - but ethics 
> clearly says: Not so fast!
>
> Hans
>
>>
>> Get Outlook for iOS <https://aka.ms/o0ukef>
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> *From:* CODATA-international 
>> <codata-international-bounces at lists.codata.org> 
>> <mailto:codata-international-bounces at lists.codata.org> on behalf of 
>> Mercury Fox <ceds at email.arizona.edu> <mailto:ceds at email.arizona.edu>
>> *Sent:* Thursday, May 28, 2020 8:31:28 AM
>> *Cc:* CODATA International <codata-international at lists.codata.org> 
>> <mailto:codata-international at lists.codata.org>
>> *Subject:* Re: [CODATA-international] Brown (2020) Big Secret in 
>> the Academy (article) on Open Access and lack thereof
>> [External Email]
>>
>> The Beijing Declaration on Research Data 
>> <https://zenodo.org/record/3552330#.Xs-tt9rQhEY> has a prescription 
>> for closed research data in article 6, although I see that the 
>> final version removed the recommendation for data management plans 
>> include an embargo expiration date.
>>
>> On Wed, May 27, 2020 at 5:31 PM Falk Huettmann 
>> <fhuettmann at alaska.edu <mailto:fhuettmann at alaska.edu>> wrote:
>>
>>
>>     Dear Kind Colleagues,
>>
>>     as most people on this listerserver and in agencies promote the
>>     news that we are all moving towards Open Access, and that
>>     things get better that way and more transparent, or even more
>>     trustworthy,
>>     I would like to share with you below a recent article by the
>>     esteemed American Association of
>>     University Professors (AAUP), titled
>>
>>     The Big Secret in the Academy Is That Most Research Is Secret:
>>     The dangerous rift between open and classified research, Spring
>>     2020
>>     By Kate Brown
>>     https://www.aaup.org/article/big-secret-academy-most-research-secret#.Xs7TDERKhhE
>>
>>
>>     It deals with Chernobyl as a case study but has many wider
>>     implications and statements within on data access issues and
>>     the sciences, globally.
>>
>>     It mirrors what I know and see, and what I have expressed last
>>     years.
>>
>>     It also reminds of such type of works (see facts and details
>>     within, specifically data and digital society issues) like:
>>     https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/533258/how-will-capitalism-end-by-wolfgang-streeck/
>>
>>     https://www.amazon.com/Against-Everything-Essays-Mark-Greif-ebook/dp/B019B6WTZW
>>
>>     https://www.amazon.com/Dirty-Wars-Battlefield-Jeremy-Scahill/dp/156858671X
>>
>>
>>     The best way to proceed here, in a good way, is to fully
>>     acknowledge the status quo,
>>     and then improve on it dramatically for betterment.
>>     I lack those acknowledgements though and actions even, or a
>>     valid vision, beyond just arbitrary piecemeal with many loop
>>     holes and ineffciencies.
>>
>>     That's my view.
>>
>>     Thanks, please keep me posted on this topic.
>>     Very best regards
>>        Falk Huettmann  PhD, Professor
>>          University of Alaska Fairbanks
>>
>>
>>     _______________________________________________
>>     CODATA-international mailing list
>>     CODATA-international at lists.codata.org
>>     <mailto:CODATA-international at lists.codata.org>
>>     http://lists.codata.org/mailman/listinfo/codata-international_lists.codata.org
>>
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> *Merc Fox
>> *Director, CODATA Center of Excellence in Data for Society at the 
>> University of Arizona
>> Data7 + iSchool + NNI + CDSDS
>> Tucson AZ ♦Washington DC
>> (520) 261-4997
>> https://ceds.arizona.edu
>> https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0726-7301
>>
>> Tucson and the University of Arizona are located on Tohono O'odham 
>> Nation homelands  and the lands of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe.
>>
>> This email contains links to content or websites. Always be 
>> cautious when clicking on external links or attachments. If in 
>> doubt, please forward suspicious emails to phishing at carleton.ca 
>> <mailto:phishing at carleton.ca>.
>>
>> -----End of Disclaimer-----
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> CODATA-international mailing list
>> CODATA-international at lists.codata.org  <mailto:CODATA-international at lists.codata.org>
>> http://lists.codata.org/mailman/listinfo/codata-international_lists.codata.org
> -- 
> Hans Pfeiffenberger
> Consultant, scientific data infrastructures & policies
> www.hans-pfeiffenberger.de  <http://www.hans-pfeiffenberger.de>

-- 
Hans Pfeiffenberger
Consultant, scientific data infrastructures & policies
www.hans-pfeiffenberger.de

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.codata.org/pipermail/codata-international_lists.codata.org/attachments/20200528/08f08dba/attachment.html>