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Should DNA be Patentable?
nexex writes: "This story seems brings the patent debate home; specifically, should a company or person be able to 'own' your DNA? Obviously researchers want to profit from their discoveries, thus funding new research. But critics counter they are profitting at the expense of our health, citing restrive screening licenses for things such as breast cancer and Alzheimer's. Citing a figure from a UK activist group, 500,000 gene or gene sequence patents have been applied for worldwide. Another excellent article on this issue from Salon.com was from a couple years ago."
Put a patent and a copyright on the strands that make up diseases like AIDS, Herpes, Malaria & the common cold. I'm tired of catching a cold, and I sure as hell don't want to get any terminal diseases in the near future. If you think about it, DNA is really a kind of software, it is intellectual property that's been unclaimed. Well dammit someone should claim that IP and protect it's right to not be copied unless specifically authorized by the rightful owner and in compliance with the DMCA!
I've always been confused by this - if I tried to patent my own DNA, couldn't someone use me as an example of prior work?
"What we have here, is a failure to communicate." - Cool Hand Luke
Knowing my luck, one day my doctor will tell me "I'm sorry, but we just noticed the DNA for your mitochondria is patented. I've been told that the patent holder is filing under the DMCA that you've illegally been copying their intellectual property since conception and you must either cease operations immediately or remove all offending material."
*sigh*
I am releasing my DNA under the GPL license.
http://www.kubuntu.org/
They should patent the dna genes, of course.
much like others patented the star formations in the sky to find their way home.
while you're at it, patent warm water too.
Looking for people to chat about multicopters, coding, music. skype: gtsiros