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March 2001
Problematic issues are raised by the expressed intention of the European Commission to promote greater awareness on the part of scientists in the �European Research Area� about intellectual property rights and their uses in the context of �Internet intensive research collaborations.� Promoting greater awareness and encouraging more systematic usage of IRP protections are logically distinct, but as policies for implementation - especially within the EC�s Fifth Framework Programme - the former can too readily shade into the latter. Building �good fences� does not make for �good (more productive) neighbors� in science. Balance needs to be maintained between the �open science� mode of research, and private proprietary R&D;, because at the macro-system level the functions that each is well-suited to serve are complementary. Recent policy initiatives, particularly by the EC in relation to the legal protection of property rights in database, pose a serious threat to the utility of collaboratively consttructed digital information infrastructures which provide �information spaces� for voyages of scientific discovery. The case for alternative policy approaches is argued in this paper, and several specific proposals are set out for further discussion.