Economics - General

The web works for porn, not for science?

Marketplace discusses whether or not NIH funded studies should be make available for free.

  • Duke University law professor James Boyle: “The Web works great for porn or for shoes, or for flirting on social networks. But it doesn’t work really well for science. We haven’t done for science what we did on the rest of the Web, which is basically to have this open Web with everything linked together.”
  • Laura Jannek is a med student at Case Western: “I mean this is how capitalism works, right? The strong companies are the ones who can adapt to the changing environment, and you can’t prevent information technology from progressing as it is.”

Information is a public good. When research is funded by the government, the socially optimal solution is to make this information available for free to the public. Open access is the way to go.

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