Recently, Frontline, dated Jan 30, 2004, published two articles touching upon free access to scientific journals, and the recent WSIS meet:
The 'free access' debate http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2102/stories/20040130001308200.htm
Taking stock of a revolution http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2102/stories/20040130001708400.htm
We can hope that CSIR would agree with the reasoning for 'free access' and free the access to its publications.
Two quotes from the article "Taking stock of a revolution" are also relevant here:
<quote 1>
The [WSIS] summit reaffirmed the orthodoxy that the protection of "intellectual property rights" is "important to encourage innovation and creativity in the Information Society". It also agreed concurrently, that the "sharing and strengthening of global knowledge can be enhanced by removing barriers to equitable access to information and by facilitating access to public domain information"
<quote 2>
There is an obvious chasm between these two propositions that needs to be bridged. It is now widely recognised that asymmetries in access to information created or underwritten by intellectual property protection, could limit the potential of ICT for development. Considering the number of powerful industrial lobbies pressing for tighter rules of intellectual property protection in the west - music and entertainment, pharmaceuticals, computer software - there is unlikely to be any major accrual to the public domain in the near future. The summit steered a delicate course around this problem by urging that "awareness" be created about the potential offered by different software models - including proprietary, open source and free software. </quote>
___ Should we also adopt a similar "delicate course around this problem?"