Who Owns Your Data?

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Nature's "Great Beyond" blog reports another attempt to force climate scientists to release their data. I'm of at least two minds on this: I believe openness is absolutely crucial to science (and society as a whole), but I understand scientists' concern about being scooped, and equally their concern about having their work misrepresented or quoted out of context. Mostly, I come down on the side of openness—how about you?