copyrighted descriptions

[JOSEPH E. LAFERRIERE]

The recent discussion on copyright laws has mixed two subjects
together indiscriminately: copyrighting of names and copyrighting
of descriptions. I do not think anyone maintains that
scientific names can be copyrighted. Descriptions are a different
matter. The whole idea opens up an entire tin-plated steel container
of annelids. Even if you and I write descriptions of the same organism
without looking at each other's writing, the two descriptions
will be very similar. By the usual standards applied to prose
fiction, one would be a plagiarizing of the other. Descriptive
biology would die an agonizingly painful death.

--
Dr. Joseph E. Laferriere
"Computito ergo sum ...  I link therefore I am."