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Encoding DNA as Music for Copyrighting?

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the now-thats-just-flat-out-slimey dept.

superposed writes "A Silicon Valley executive is proposing that biotech companies could improve on the U.S.'s 20-year patent protection for DNA sequences by encoding them as digital music files (Lame Free Registration required) and using copyright protection, which can last up to 100 years. Right now this is just a suggestion, and for what it's worth, the original author of some of the DNA-to-music software thinks its a bad idea. But it's still disturbing somehow."

9 of 179 comments (clear)

  1. And as Bill Hicks might've said... by kafka93 · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...It'll still sound better than the Backstreet Boys..

  2. Bad idea, by pacc · · Score: 3, Funny

    The one thing in common between DNA and digital music is that they are booth made to copy.

  3. And in other news... by Pedrito · · Score: 4, Funny

    God appears in court on Monday to sue every medical company for violating his DNA patents.

  4. Re:Yet another dumb idea that doesn't hold up. by baudbarf · · Score: 4, Funny

    DAMMIT!

    When I first read this, it gave me ideas! I was thinking.. "Whoa! In that case, I'm gonna use the court's tendency to rule in favor of ridiculous copyright claims to my advantage! I'm gonna copyright my fingerprints, my retina, and my DNA! Then I'll sue the DMV if they refuse to remove my fingerprint from their databases! And from now on, I can proudly refuse to give away my fingerprints to banks and police!"

    Pity..

    --
    You can run but you can't hide, except, apparently, along the Afghan-Pakistani border.
  5. That's it... by ChristianBaekkelund · · Score: 4, Funny

    I absolutely need to get to a genetics lab and get myself sequenced so I can copyright myself ASAP.

  6. God's lawyers are a bitch to deal with by coyote-san · · Score: 5, Funny

    Of course DNA is a creative work. But the author has a tendency to take things a bit personally when you step on his turf - plagues of locusts, seas of blood, 40 years wandering the dessert.

    "False gods" are a particular sore spot. It also involved money and the creation of synthetic animals -- wasn't there something about cattle made of gold?

    So sure, claim His work. But don't expect much sympathy when a Legion of Angelic Lawyers arrive to contest it.

    </passover humor>

    --
    For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. -- H L Mencken
  7. Come to think of it by glwtta · · Score: 4, Funny

    wouldn't this sart opening up huge metal faces on Mars and shit?

    --
    sic transit gloria mundi
  8. Re:Yet another dumb idea that doesn't hold up. by AftanGustur · · Score: 3, Funny


    To get copyrightprotection it must be an original and creative work.

    Naive you are. Read this you must.

    --
    echo '[q]sa[ln0=aln80~Psnlbx]16isb572CCB9AE9DB03273snlbxq' |dc
  9. Angelic Lawyers?! by dstone · · Score: 3, Funny

    a Legion of Angelic Lawyers

    If that's not an oxymoron...