Scientific research is patented and exclusively copyrighted under publisher. If all scientific research were public and accessible we would not have sci-hub, and they would not currently be in court. We would also not live in a world where scientist has to work around patents and in some cases chose alternative research areas just because they can't afford (or use the result) because of patents. In addition there is a huge controversy in many Universities that patent from research is owned by the university, and if the researcher want to use technology that they themselves discover they need to pay the university.
Removing patents and copyright from public funded universities is an on-going struggle that has yet to be fixed. We have yet to start to make all scientific research free from patents and copyright.
We should strive towards the utopia where all that was expected is that people will cite the source, and then everyone could build off the work of everyone else.
I am not sure I understand your point of distinction. Yes, Die Gedanken Sind Frei, the knowledge that exist in the researcher head is not copyrighted. The knowledge written down in the research paper by the researcher is. The knowledge in the head can however be patented, and so rendered unusable until the property owner has gotten paid.
A researcher discovers, say, a particular way to make a room temperature superconductor, and writes a paper describing how to make it, how they tested it, and giving a theoretical explanation of how it works.
That paper would be subject to copyright.
However, if I go read the paper at the library and then use the knowledge I gained from it to make the superconductor and test it and applied the theory I learned from the paper to other superconductors, that would not violate the copyright of the paper.
If I wanted to then tell you how to make the superconductor, I would not be able to make a copy of the original paper and give you that copy. That would be violating the copyright on the paper.
But I could write up my own description of how to make it in my own words, using what I learned from the paper, and give you that description. That would be fine from a copyright point of view.
Removing patents and copyright from public funded universities is an on-going struggle that has yet to be fixed. We have yet to start to make all scientific research free from patents and copyright.
We should strive towards the utopia where all that was expected is that people will cite the source, and then everyone could build off the work of everyone else.