Wipout Essay Results

chrestomanci writes "The Register is reporting on the results of a counter-essay contest run by wipout.net (an international organisation that seeks to limit the reach of the WIPO and intellectual property rights in general) against the WIPO's own essay contest, both with the title "What does intellectual property mean to you in your daily life?". A telling slogan reads: Today, the WTO pulled the trigger on another 2.500 poor AIDS victims."

Comments

You gotta wonder about wipout.net...

[shoppa]

First thing I see after loading http://www.wipout.net is

This site looks best at 800x600. Netscape users please click here

Under lynx, of course, all you see is an vast landscape of clickable (and un-ALT tagged) GIF's.

They may be all for freedom of expression, but they haven't yet mastered freedom of browsing!

Re:Today, the WTO pulled the trigger on another 2.

[benthesinister]

Dude, I'm callin' shenanigans on you. In sub-saharan Africa up to 20% of the population is infected with AIDS. Burundi is a good example, they have a 19% infection rate. It isn't as though they are being unsafe or overly promiscuous; there is no birth or disease control available to them, and furthermore, everybody has it, so avoiding it is rendered difficult.

Yes, there IS a conspiracy of sorts. The conspiracy is that the pharmaceutical companies and their extremely powerful allies won't allow AIDS drugs to be manufactured overseas. Treatment is so expensive because the pharms. charge markups in excess of 1000% on the cost of manufacture. The conspiracy is that money is always weighed above human life in our country.

Re:Balderdash

[mochan_s]

Qoute:Malaria kills far more people than AIDS

Maybe in the 1980s and before. From the link ; BC titled "Aids Africa's top killer ", AIDS is the largest killer in Africa.

$10/year is misleading. If they were to produce the drug in that country then the cost of the drug would match up to the $10/year heath care spending. In other words, they could produce it real cheap.

Re:Drugs Patents Do Make Sense

[Bobzibub]

But Patents do not necessarily mean innovation. For instance:
http://www.aegis.com/news/ads/2001/AD01 2206.html
One company has patents on two HIV testing methods. The company is withholding the better one because it is generating more revenue on the worse (slower) one.

cheers,
-b

Re:Balderdash

[Ian Bicking]

Indeed -- AIDS is overblown in Africa, simply a disease of definition. This paper gives the WHO's definition:

The WHO's clinical-case definition for AIDS in Africa (adopted in 1985) is not based on an HIV test or T-cell counts but on the combined symptoms of chronic diarrhea, prolonged fever, 10 percent body weight loss in two months and a persistent cough, none of which are new or uncommon on the African continent.

Which is to say, AIDS in Africa is a total fraud. Mbeki was right when he criticized the "epidemic". To say that Africa is undergoing a very serious decay of health systems is entirely true -- the problem isn't a lack of AIDS drugs, but a lack of basic public health facilities -- clean water, mosquito and malaria control, hospital facilities, trained medical professionals, etc.

With the WHO's definition of AIDS it is scary if people were to actual receive the drug coctail based on that diagnosis (I don't know -- maybe they wouldn't). AZT kills people -- it is a very harmful drug, and if they didn't have something that looks like American AIDS before they start taking AZT, they will after.

I'm afraid this is one place where the activists have been a very negative influence. The attacks on Mbeki were intense and they totally ignored his reasons. IMHO, AIDS in non-risk populations hasn't, isn't, and won't be a serious health issue here or in Africa -- but people have formed their identity around the disease, and that makes it very hard for them to let go.