[Upd-discuss] Access to Knowledge Treaty

[Dean Anderson]

This is not just a problem with Drug companies. For example, aircraft
manufacturers and airlines sat on information about fire safety until a
fire in a SwissAir MD11 killed a bunch of people in Canada in 1999.  The
insulation was flamable, an electrical short started a fire in the
insulation, and the fire caused the plane to crash. The FAA then gave the
airlines until May 2005 to correct the problem.  China had previously
warned the US that it had a problem with flamable insulation and
ventilation parts in its large passenger aircraft. The US did nothing.

Insurance paid out $1.5 billion (yes, billion) to the families of the
SwissAir MD11 victims. ValueJet (also avoidable fire in Florida) was
forced to change its name to AirTran.  Money penalties don't seem to deter
bad practices.

The common denominator is that people know of dangerous problems, and
other people sweep them under a rug.

I don't think putting all research under government control will solve the
problem.  I don't think merely removing publication control is quite
enough. The researchers are still vulnerable to retribution.  Perhaps we
need to criminalize the "sweeping under the rug" of things that are
dangerous.  Insurance premiums alone aren't enough.

I also think that not everything can be safe. That there are dangers and
risks that have to be accepted.  I accept that the Space Shuttle may be a 
risky proposition. But so are unmanned rockets. The astronauts who fly 
however, know the risks. That knowledge seems to reduce the responsibility 
of the builders of the rocket, for example.

So perhaps the problem could be addressed by requiring a reasonable search
of consideration for risks, and disclosure of known risks and dangers (not
just access to knowledge) and criminalizing non-disclosure.  Publication
of all (rather than just some) information would be a sign of good faith
that nothing has been "swept under the rug".

		--Dean

On Tue, 25 Jan 2005, Richard Stallman wrote:

> Another idea is to require publication of the detaila of drug studies,
> the information that drug companies like to keep secret.
> 
> Another idea is to forbid drug companies to have any control over the
> publication over any research results of research that they fund.
> 
> I wish I could think of a way to prevent them from punishing
> researchers who publish negative results by not funding them any more,
> but the only way I can see is for the government to tax these
> companies and fund the research directly.  That doesn't really fit
> the rubric of "access to knowledge".
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