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That's an absurd and lazy interpretation of the UDHR, if you don't mind me saying so. These are poor people in developing countries. They don't have money to p
by alextgordon 11y ago
That's an absurd and lazy interpretation of the UDHR, if you don't mind me saying so.
These are poor people in developing countries. They don't have money to pay the "material interests" demanded of them. It was obviously not the intention of the UDHR to bar half the planet from access to scientific knowledge.
- rayiner 11y ago"Material interest" means the right to the financial benefits of something, and usually it means a property interest. The UNDHR explicitly calls out "scientific ... productions" as something authors have the right to profit from. What's absurd is looking at that plain language and then deciding there is an exception for poor people in developing countries that appears nowhere in the text. There's nothing subtle about Article 27. The first clause means you can't keep scientific knowledge from people. The second clause means that "scientific ... production[s]" (i.e. knowledge distilled into a work of authorship) are protectable property.
- visarga 11y agoThe cost of their "material interests" is too much for society. And we already paid for said research by government grants.