Why are we copyrighting science? -- de Silva and Hanwella 341 -- bmj.com

"...Scales are also used to assess patients’ levels of functioning, quality of life, satisfaction with services, and burden on carers. Of the many hundred scales developed for use in medicine only a few gain wide acceptance among researchers. Scales used in many specialties, such as the general health questionnaire and the mini-mental state examination, have been copyrighted. Some copyrighted scales are first published in journals and are available free to researchers. However, once a rating scale is accepted by the scientific community an updated version is copyrighted,..."