Copyrighting Taxonomy = Biopiracy?
Usually when there’s talk of IP limiting access to biological resources, it’s in reference to patenting traditional medicines, or something along those lines. But a letter to the editor in Nature (via SciDev.net) highlights another connection between the subjects: that copyrighted publications put taxonomic information beyond the reach of those who live in the countries where the species are found. (As the letter-writer points out, developing countries are “home to more than 95% of species whose descriptions have been published”).
“A simple solution would be to treat species descriptions as we do gene sequences, and have them openly accessible. Open-access descriptions of new species could then be a mandatory factor in making them valid under the various codes of biological nomenclature.”
