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Iraq law Requires Seed Licenses
Doc Ruby writes "The American Administrator of the Iraqi CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority) government, Paul Bremer, updated Iraq's intellectual property law to 'meet current internationally-recognized standards of protection.' The updated law makes saving seeds for next year's harvest, practiced by 97% of Iraqi farmers in 2002, the standard farming practice for thousands of years across human civilizations, newly illegal. Instead, farmers will have to obtain a yearly license for genetically modified seeds from American corporations. These GM seeds have typically been modified from IP developed over thousands of generations by indigenous farmers like the Iraqis, shared freely like agricultural 'open source.' Other IP provisions for technology in the law further integrate Iraq into the American IP economy."
Or they could, you know, NOT USE THOSE SEEDS, and instead continue using the strains they've been using for the last few thousand years or so.
Moron, they *are* using the strains they've been using for the last few thousand years. It's just that now Monsanto "owns" the rights to the Iraqi strains.
They're doing this in India too (and I'd imagine elsewhere).
And that doesn't even touch on the complete idiocy of anyone "owning" the IP rights of a plant to begin with.
But then we wouldn't have our little whole-cloth pretext for a little political bashing, would we?
Actually, that appears to be *your* mistake.