ABSTRACT
When researchers document people's knowledge and bring it into the public domain without any prior informed consent of communities or individuals, they are being just because they are following the norms of their profession. The professionals who document such knowledge without attribution have a legal justification for exploitation. If the purpose is to keep the crucible of creativity in which knowledge is produced, reproduced, debated and refined intact, then the present discourse has to look at the relationship between knowledge, institutions, ethics, and culture. The adverse consequences even for a few of the knowledge seekers may create a similar dilemma to the adverse consequences for knowledge providers. The providers of knowledge, in many cases, did not ask for any report of what the knowledge seekers did with the knowledge they obtained. The motives of the scholars who collect knowledge from local communities may be benign.
