Open source and a society that shares – India’s tradition of knowledge

Red Hat magazine has published an article about common things in open source and India's tradition of knowledge. Intellectual property. Who does it help? An Indian man examines his country's history and concludes that shared knowledge benefits everyone. And the economy.

From the article:
Intellectual property. It's one of the defining terms of the 21st century. The recent knowledge symposium, "Owning the future: Ideas and their role in the digital age" deconstructed the term "intellectual property" and examined the assumptions beneath it. Since the event was being held in India, it seemed appropriate to examine intellectual property in the context of Indian traditions of knowledge.

Though no one has a proprietary lock on yoga, it is still a thriving $30 billion business in the United States.

But, in the digital era, we can enrich ourselves immensely by giving. Indian tradition belives that knowledge grows through sharing. The open source philosophy, based on the principles of collaboration, community, and shared ownership of intellectual resources has much in common with Indian traditions of knowledge. We therefore owe it, not only to India, but to the world, to ensure that the sharing of knowledge and not its reduction into "intellectual property" is the norm.

A society that shares: India's tradition of knowledge [redhat.com]

Although, I agree with author, in reality education is a big business under the name of knowledge in India. Just look at all those engineering and medical colleges/universities. Normal student like you and me cannot take admission without student loan. This is hard reality, period.