Dr T.B. Rajashekar 16th Memorial Lecture, 2021 on: “Revisiting Copyright and the Republic of Science: Reframing Copyright Theories From Property to Public Good.” By Dr Shalini R. Urs on Friday, 16th July at 3 pm
Dr T.B. Rajashekar 16th Memorial Lecture, 2021 on:
Revisiting Copyright and the Republic of Science: Reframing Copyright Theories From Property to Public Good.
By Dr Shalini R. Urs,
Founder Chairperson and Trustee MYRA School of Business, Mysore & Former Founder Director and Professor International School of Information Management University of Mysore, Mysore
The talk will be chaired by
Ms Bindu Sharma,
Founder & CEO, Origiin IP Solutions LLP (https://www.origiin.com/)
Microsoft Live Event Link: https://tinyurl.com/4n3wuc52
Date & Time: Friday, 16th July at 3 pm
Abstract of the Talk
This talk will briefly lay the foundations for revisiting the theoretical justifications for copyright by discussing the four theoretical frameworks: utilitarian theory, the labor–desert theory, the personality theory, and the social planning theory. While the utilitarian theory and the social planning theory build their theoretical explanations on the notion of maximization of social welfare through diverging on how they each define “welfare.” The labor–desert
theory and the personality theory form the Rights-based theories and justify copyright as a “natural right” given to the creator of copyright material. The norms of “the Republic of Science” are famously articulated by Robert Merton and compactly summarized by the mnemonic “CUDOS”: Communalism, Universalism, Disinterestedness, Originality, and Skepticism. These CUDOS norms not only dovetail with Popper’s ideal of Open Society but are intrinsic to the scientific enterprise. Scientific or scholarly information exhibits the two cardinal characteristics of Public Goodnon-excludable and non-rivalrous. From an economic point of view, scientific products are essentially public goods, and from a sociological point of view, scientific research is a product of social collaboration, and its ownership belongs to the community. Asserting that production of scientific knowledge does not belong to the “natural right” category, and the public good is social welfare, I argue that it is time to revisit the copyright issue and turn it on its head. We need to reframe the copyright theories in the context of CUDOS norms and the principle that knowledge is a non-excludable and non-rivalrous commodity.
About the speaker
Dr Shalini R Urs is an internationally recognized academic who began her career in the academia 44 years back, joining the University of Mysore as a lecturer in the Department of Library and Information Science in 1976. She is an institution builder whose brainchild is the MYRA School of Business (www.myra.ac.in), which she founded in 2012. She also founded the International School of Information Management (www.isim.ac.in) — the first Information School in India, as an autonomous constituent unit of the University of Mysore in 2005. She is currently involved with Gooru India Foundation as a Board member (https://gooru.org/about/team) and is actively involved in the implementation of the Gooru Learning Platform in India, and building the Indian Learning Collective. She has served as a UNESCO expert on several occasions and was commissioned to conduct many studies in the last twenty years. Her contributions have won her several awards.
She was a Fulbright scholar and a visiting professor at the Department of Computer Science, Virginia Tech, the USA during 2000 – 2001; an adjunct faculty at the International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore (IIITB) during 2005-2007; and a visiting professor at the Documentation Research and Training Centre, Indian Statistical Institute, Bangalore during 1998 and 1999.
Passionate and dedicated to digital scholarship, she has lead many digital initiatives in India. She pioneered the Electronic Theses and Dissertations Movement in India in the year 2000 and won the Microsoft Grant for implementing UNICODE for Indian Languages in 2003. Adobe Leadership award in 2004. She conceptualized and developed the Vidyanidhi Digital Library and eScholarship portal (www.vidyanidhi.org.in) in the year 2000 with funding from the Government of India, which became a national initiative with further funding from the Ford Foundation. She built an online digital library way back in 2000, much before the digital era captured the imagination in India.
As an information scientist, Dr Urs takes a 360-degree view of information and has researched on issues ranging from the theoretical foundations of information sciences to Informatics. Her areas of research include— eLearning and digital libraries, Ontology Development, and Social Network Analysis. She has published nearly 200 papers in international journals and peer-reviewed conference proceedings published by Springer, Emerald, and others. Her research publications focus on Social Network Analysis, Security Informatics, and Ontology Development. She has also edited a couple of books
published by Springer under their LNCS (Lecture Notes in Computer Science) series.
Widely travelled (to more than 25 countries), invited to speak at various international and national conferences and academic events, Dr Urs speaks on wide-ranging topics focusing on primarily ‘Technology for Learning and Development’; ‘Digital Libraries’; and ‘Social Network Analysis.’
Dr Urs has won many awards—including the Adobe-NDLTD – Leadership award in 2004; Emerald Research Fund Award 2007-08. She was awarded the Mortenson Distinguished Lecturer 2010 by the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, USA. She was conferred with the Women Leadership Award by Dewang Mehta Business School awards in 2014 and Education Evangelist Award of India award by Skill Tree Foundation in 2015 for her
outstanding contribution to higher education.
With decades of experience in academia and educational entrepreneurship, she initiated many innovative programmes, founded the International School of Information Management in 2005 and the MYRA School of Business in 2012. Currently she is focused on academic research, writing and her consulting and advisory role in various organizations.
About the Chair
Bindu Sharma is Founder and CEO of Origiin IP Solutions.
She is post graduate in Microbiology, LLB from Bangalore University and a registered patent agent at Indian patent office. With a team of experts from various technical domains her company has been providing services in the area of patent analytics, performing IP audits of research projects to identify protectable IP, formulating IP policies ad IP cells in the institutions, drafting, filing and prosecution of patent applications.
- Origiin IP Solutions LLP has been recognised by Niti Aayog Darpan, Social Talks, Government of India for Excellent contribution in the field of Patents and Bindu Sharma has been recognised for Excellent leadership in the field of patents. The certificate recognizes Origiin for outstanding professional achievement, remarkable leadership, assertiveness and ingenuity all of which has made good progress for India in the field of Patents. On behalf of Origiin we thank all of you for best wishes and trust. Fen 1st 2020
- She was listed as one of top 100 most powerful women in law by WIPF in 2016 & 2021.
- Origiin was also listed as Company of the year 2014 Patents by Silicon India.
- Her company, Origiin has been Finalist in ET Now awards for Leaders of Tomorrow 2013.
She has been speaker in more than 100 national and international conferences, academic institutions and corporates. She has authored various books & articles and three of her books have been kept in European Patent Office library.