Seth Powsner and David Powsner, Cognition, Copyright, and the Classroom, American Journal of Psychiatry, March 2005. A letter to the editor. Excerpt: 'Many psychiatrists are unaware that the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) is protected by copyright. Its 20 questions were published in 1975 in the Journal of Psychiatric Research. This journal’s copyright notice forbids unauthorized reproduction of the examination. However, clinical experience suggests that unauthorized copies are routinely distributed to trainees and staff. We recently became aware of this while preparing an article for publication....The MMSE has become the most widely accepted test of cognitive status, the Journal of Psychiatric Research has been purchased by Elsevier, and a corporation has been formed to license MMSE commercial rights....Computer professionals worry about stealth patents --patents held quietly until there is a market to control. Has psychiatry fallen afoul of a stealth copyright? For years, we taught trainees to use a copyrighted examination. Must they purchase examinations from Psychological Assessment Resources in order to conduct interviews without risk of a lawsuit?...Computer programmers established the Open Source Initiative to avoid copyright battles. Software contributed to Open Source Initiative is free for copying, with an understanding that refinements will be contributed back. Psychiatrists have assumed this model for years, openly publishing their techniques and technical improvements. Psychiatrists need tests such as the MMSE and, like psychologists, should respect intellectual property rights. For teaching, we need consensus --teach any effective interview technique, even a commercial one, or teach only open, freely available techniques.'
Posted by
Peter Suber at 3/02/2005 08:26:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
