Abstract
Debates about the commercialization of academic research have plagued mankind for at least as long as the authors have been around in this world. Proponents of commercialization argue that, like all else in today’s capitalistic world, academia and research ought to be subjected to market forces. Those against the motion decry the prostitution of what was once a noble ideal-that is, the purity of research and the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake.1
[1] For an overview of this debate, see generally Janice Newson, The Corporate-Linked University: From Social Project to Market Force, 23 CAN. J. COMM. 107 (1998). See alsoJoshua B. Powers, Commercializing Academic Research: Resource Effects on Performance of University Technology Transfer, 74 J. HIGHER EDUC. 26-27 (2003). David Bridges notes, “There is scarcely a university in the UK whose academic freedom has not been compromised by its funding arrangements.” David Bridges, Research for Sale: Moral Market or Moral Maze?, 24 BRIT. EDUC. RES. J. 593 (1998).