Public domain can be defined as:



Also taking into account the help section (here), you can see that the results of the projects that we currently do are open to everyone.

However, once we have crunched away and the results are in the public domain, there is nothing to stop a big pharmaceutical company taking them and developing them. As they develop them, they will likely make it proprietary and make money out of it at the end of the day.

The thing is that without places such as WCG, we would be even further away from answers than we are now (not that I am saying that we have any but we are limiting the amount of questions )

Edit: for spellling

I realize there is a lot of ambiguity between the terms 'Public Domain', 'Open source' and 'free software' but that is a discussion/debate I don't care to be a part of. But that there is free software in the public domain that comes with a license agreements was really the only thing I was referring to.

As my previous post stated in so many words I do realized that if companies are not allowed to make profits off our crunch time and the results we produce, the people needing the drugs and/or cures that come from those results will never get them. But I would think that it would be appropriate for such products to be required to carry a WCG logo of some sort to acknowledge the input this community has freely made to the development of that produce. I say that not from the prospective of needing recognition but of knowing that what I am doing is making a difference. Badges and points will keep most people's interest only so long, like a video game. But if there was a cure for say cancer that was development based on research from this community and it carried the WCG logo, we all could know for sure that we did make a difference each time we saw it! Unless I have missed something in what I have read so far, the only way I will know if something I have done is being used is to keep up with and read research papers on the topic a couple of years down the line. I have a hard enough time trying to keep up with all the technology in my own field.

Just my .02 as a new cruncher,
g00dkn16ht

Didactylos, I had noticed that there was a newsletter but not taken the time to read it yet. Trying to read help and forum topics to get up to speed faster. At your suggestion I did go and read the latest newsletter and it was informative and answered some other questions. I will read some back issues and hopefully be able to see how research on some of the completed projects are currently being used or developing.

g00dkn16ht

Yes bbover3, that was very informative and thanks for you time.

My point was that I could see where if a cure for something like cancer was found, through the use of the WCG, and marketed that if the WCG's contribution to that cure was well established in the public's sight, it could have a very positive impact on distributive computing in general and the WCG in particular. I guess I was looking to see if there was something in place to insure that that recognition would happen. Thanks again, g00dkn16ht

There are some good reasons for making the results absolutely without strings.

Even something as simple as giving WCG credit can be a problem. First, no one but the pharmacist would see it. But aside from that, it might be considered to be an implied contract between WCG and the manufacturer. There are a lot of laws that exist and are enforced with nothing being written down anywhere. So the agreement requiring that WCG being given credit might at some later date be interpreted as giving WCG some financial interest.

You can say 'ok, so just make it clear that's not what we mean.' OK, but what about the infinite number of other possibilties. You can't forsee them all. When you start trying, your simple agreement becomes hundreds of pages of legalese.

This may sound silly, but stranger things have happened and companies are always concerned about how an agreement might be interpreted in the future.

Also, for a new drug to get to market, you have to spend literally hundreds of millions of dollars on clinical trials - and not every drug tested in this way makes it to market.

There's also nothing to stop a competitor from jumping in an offering a generic version once the drug is FDA approved because the drug itself is public domain.

It would be like someone spending millions on l-tryptophan as an insomnia medication. Of course this wouldn't be necessary for a variety of reasons, but let's say it was. The first company does the trials, gets FDA approval and then someone else, getting free ride off of their results, markets a generic version. No company is going to take that risk.

What will most likely happen is whatever drug we find will be used as the basis for an effort to find a molecule similar to the our drug but with better activity for whatever its target happens to be.

So it would be as if we discovered codeine and the pharma company took our molecule and developed morphine. They are both opiates, but morphine is much stronger for pain relief.

Since it's a different molecule, they will be able to get full patent protection.

If however the drug we find is the best in its class, they can still get a patent in other ways - like isolating the most active isomer, using a unique delivery system, etc.