Who owns our work?

Who owns our software?—a first-person case study

The invention and realization of a new technique, software paradigm, or other large piece of work may take place over a period of one or even several decades. It frequently happens that the IP model under which the work was started changes before it is finished—sometimes more than once. This paper explores the development of the Max/MSP/jMax/Pd paradigm, along with some other related developmen...

Who Owns Intelligence?

Who owns 'culture'?1

No one owns the concept 'culture'. Anthropology's long-standing proprietary claim on the concept rests on three sorts of contentions none of which are convincing. Anthropology's overwhelmingly interpretive approaches to cultural materials have led to a preoccupation with the details of cultural materials at the expense of formulating explanatory theories. This has, among other things, rendered ...

Who Owns Child Abuse?

Expectations of contemporary child protection apparatuses are strongly influenced by beliefs inherited from the nineteenth century child rescue movement. In particular, the belief that child abuse determination is obvious. However, this assumption fails to make a distinction between nineteenth century’s emphasis on impoverished environments and the twentieth century introduction of the patholog...

Who Owns Your DNA?

Stanford Genetics Professor Michael Snyder’s book, Genomics & Personalized Medicine: What Everyone Needs to Know, is a work to be enjoyed on multiple levels. Designed for a broad audience, the book delivers a great deal of detail for the scientifically savvy while still providing a generalized overview for the yet-to-be-initiated. Although brief, the book is timely, having followed closely on t...