Slashdot Mirror
Plant a Seed, Get Sued?
Friar_MJK writes "Now even traditionally non-tech-savvy farmers are getting the rap for piracy. This isn't your grandma's p2p filesharing, but rather replanting bio-engineered seeds. Somehow the powers-that-be got the idea that replanting seeds grown from your own soil is a crime. A company called Monsanto sells those specially engineered seeds, and according to their license agreements, they make it illegal to replant the seeds harvested from a previous crop. To enforce this, they have brought many hard-working farmers to court and even thrown some in jail. According to the story, the company has not lost a case yet." We've had a couple of stories about Monsanto suing a Canadian farmer, but there hasn't been a lot of U.S. press devoted to the issue.
"I swear, it looked like one of mine", exclaimed Ms. Nature, while being being booked. Several scattered, unharvested seed from a bio-engineered crop sprouted this Spring and the Monsanto Seed Police were right on top of it.
Unrelated to this incident, Peter Rabbit was charged with Intellectual Property theft, after taking a bio-engineered cabbage from Farmer McGregor's garden. "It sure looked good, all big and green, but it tasted like wood pulp", stated the incarcerated rabbit.
In other news, to show it's kind heart, Monsanto was offering assistance to Tsunami victims. "As long as they don't try replanting our seed", said an anonymous source within the company.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
The company selling the seeds is really just upset because someone defeated the copy protection. I hear holding down the shift key on the tractor whilst sowing the seeds works.
I may apply this to my daughter.
A blog I run for the wealth
blew off trucks on their way to a processing plant ended up contaminating his fields with Monsanto's genetics.
Oh, yeah. And these movies just happened to sprinkle onto my computer on the way to my neighbors house.
Woah Man. Maybe Like, Man. That Cannabis Could Represent Freedom Man. Woah. Man.
And if a rancher started messing around with it, they could have a GNU/Herd. :)
We're practicing our labials.
Great, just what we need. Gigantic walking cornstalk armies.
"That's like if I were to write a computer worm, then sue people who get infected by it for violating the terms under which I license it!"
SCO, RIAA, MPAA, et al don't need any more ideas...
Everything I need to know I learned by killing smart people and eating their brains.
I just hope my dad hasn't produced me under one of those contracts. We're expecting a kid and now I'm scared!
I'm much more funny, interesting and insightful than the moderators think
Mother Nature's code was, is, and will be GPL.
:-)
No, it's BSD, which is why there is a problem.
sigs are hazardous to your health
I, for one... oh, fuck it.
Self-referential sigs are rarely entertaining.
This is pure evil.
worse, it's geneticly engineered evil! run!
It's because GM corn, much like cameras, will steal your soul.
I'm wondering why we're even growing bio-engineered plants in the first place. I've seen movies, this kind of thing NEVER ends well.
The Farewell Tour II
No He can't. Monsanto didn't trespass.....one of their seed licensees did. It's your mission to find out which one that seed came from (.....and good luck!)
Only boring people are ever bored.