A penny for your thoughts.

Andrew Dilnot examines the world of intellectual property rights and asks how we balance fairness with incentive and reward for creativity in both science research and the arts. Scientists like Newton, Einstein and Fleming shared their discoveries with the world, but in the USA patents puts an economic value on knowledge. Pharmaceutical companies supplying AIDS drugs to Africa have to recoup research costs. Elizabeth Harding discusses the internet and copyright law, e.g. for the music industry. Some knowledge, such as that on essential crops, cannot be patented. There is discussion of the genome project - public or private?