From my workplace: Intelectual property

I work in a technical role at the Institute for Economics Research in UNAM, Mexico’s largest university. This is an institute with relatively low computer awareness, although with a slight (or not so?) left-leaning political balance. I have found some points with which I can engage in interesting conversations with people here, but still, I am still amazed when I see something directly related to my Free Software interest areas. Today, I got in the institute’s mailing list the link to a simple but interesting article called Intellectual-property rights and wrongs, written by the 2001 Nobel winner Joseph E. Stiglitz - It speaks about the common conceptions (and misconceptions) about intellectual property, and how the Free Software (well, I must admit - he used the “Open Source” wording) has proved many of its principles wrong. But even more, he goes on talking on how the strong IP protection can hinder development, how patents can be wrongly assigned (and how they have halted development even in industrial areas, even 100 years ago), and how IP protection is killing thousands of medication-deprived people. Nice article to point people at :)