Digital Technologies, Research Collaborations and the Extension of Protection for Intellectual Property in Science: Will Building 'Good Fences' Really Make 'Good Neighbors'?

EC research programmes are promoting collaborative scientific research in general and “integrated Internet-based collaborations” in particular. New intellectual property rights (IPRs) are being developed to ensure the “intellectual property” of newly developed scientific and technological databases. As opposed to several recent institutional innovations, in this essay it is argued that the barriers invoked by these new IPRs should be “low and penetrable”, ensuring the widespread use of these databases by researchers in those (public) organizations and institutions that are expected to promote the interests of society at large.