Hi, this is so obvious question that I am surprised I couldn't find it in FAQ:

Simply said: why should I give the electric power to the project for free if the the UW Center for Commercialization (or some other "technology transfer body") will in effect SELL Baker Laboratory results to some pharmaceutical company and I will have to PAY for my medication?

That's why stuff like GNU Public License was created: if there was something created for free (like Linux), nobody should sell it.

How are the results of this project legally covered? Are we in the end of the day just sheeps of some Novartis, so they can spend the saved money for another CEO's jet plane?

The work that is being processed will not be sold to a pharmaceutical company because they wouldn't want them. The results are in the public domain so that they could not secure a patent on them. In addition a rival company could look at the same results and deduce what this company was trying to develop. The completed algorithms are what the companies want and are made freely available to companies or other universities to use and spend years trying to develop new drugs. Baker Lab is not permitted to sell their algorithms to any company.

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Actually, the academic license to the source for Rosetta is free, but they do charge license fees for commercial use. These fees go to fund the research. BakerLab itself is a non-profit entity. So, even if (when?) they strike it big, the individuals do not directly profit.

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Rosetta Moderator: Mod.Sense