BALANCING FULL AND OPEN ACCESS WITH INTELLECTUAL PROPERT RIGHTS: THE ISSUE FROM THE CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE
Frances Pinter
Open Society Institute, Budapest

There is no agreed point of view on the issues being addressed today coming out of Central and Eastern Europe. There is, however, a shared tradition of the role of science that is different from the Western perspective and that still influences the thinking behind the current day issues facing science and scientists.

The scientist in Central and Eastern Europe was a revered and respected figure who was the recipient of substantial privileges courtesy of the state. The implicit bargain dictated that scientists would carry out science, with good facilities and library resources, in exchange for acquiescence to the needs of the state.

The historically privileged position of science is reflected in their earlier budgets. These countries regularly spent a greater percentage of their GDP on science than Western countries, albeit from a low base.  They had more scientists per capita and their research was respected. Although a crude measurement, I can cite , for example, that Hungary which in the 80s ranked between 24 and 27 in GDP per capita, while ranking between 16 and 18 in volume of scientific publications and world wide citations.

With the advent of democracy and open government the nineties has been a period of dramatic shift from rigid planning to minimal planning as all policies undergo rapid and radical change to accommodate the new chosen framework. As one ideology replaced another all eyes were on the market and what science could and should be doing for the benefit of the economy. With politicians keeping an eye on regular elections, short-termism and oversimplification of the issues set in.

What we now face then is a situation where there is a lack of policy coherence, a high degree of political, legal and economic uncertainty, and an obsession with short term profits, all of which will lead to dire consequences for basic scientific research. What previously had been considered public knowledge is now the domain of private industry, particularly as public funding for science is squeezed.

Most scientists understand fully how important a long term policy is for their countries, but are unable to earn enough in their university positions to feed their families. So the best of them are being lured into the commercial sector. There access to the information they require is easier, providing it fits the needs of the commercial projects in hand, and this is rarely basic research. There is a sincere desire on the part of scientists to respect the norms of the world scientific community. But short term considerations lead to special pleas for exceptions particularly when it comes to paying for access..

To address the question "How will the principle of full and open access to scientific data be balanced with scientists' intellectual property rights?"  there is a specific issue concerning Central and Eastern Europe in the current climate of limited resources and great uncertainty that I would like to emphasise.

The scientific community of this region needs to work within the context of a democratic society. They need to learn to lobby with all the other interest groups that make a claim on state resources. They need to forget about their privileged status of the past and start anew, convincing society of the long term benefits of supporting their endeavours. Included in this comes a respect for the role of intellectual property right protection and the need to pay their full share of the costs of keeping the scientific information infrastructure operational as defined by the needs of scientists.

Exactly who will pay the costs is something for each country to determine. Reliance on a single source - as in the past - is no longer an option. Models that show a pluralistic approach to cost bearing (and sharing) need to be examined and adapted by the countries concerned. And just as Western scientists have become of necessity more entrepreneurial, so too must the scientists of Central and Eastern Europe. This means a move away from the two extreme poles - that of sole reliance on the state or on the market. A balance between the two needs to be attained.

The Open Society Institute (Soros Foundation) has played a significant role in supporting science during this period of transition, as part of its overall mission to help move towards a more pluralistic society. At the Paris meeting I will describe our activities in the world of print publishing where we have positioned out support in a way that promotes self-sufficiency, sustainability and participation in the international arena. It may be that our experience can be of use in the world of electronic journals too.