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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 buy them, I own them, they're mine. I can do what I like with them.
So, does owning your car give you the right to do anything you like with it, including running over and killing your neighbour if you don't like them ? Surely you don't belive owning something gives you the right to do anything you like with it ?
The Internet's nature is peer to peer - 20050301_cs_profs.pdf
There are two ways to challenge a law you consider unjust...
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Legally, within the bounds of the law.
Illegally, outside of those bounds.
The first solution is taken by people like Ghandi, Martin Luther King, etc. We respect them.
The second is taken by such luminaries as Timothy McVeigh and those fine upstanding people who blow up abortion clinics because they consider abortion a sin. We consider them a$$holes.
What is legal or illegal is not the same as what is right or wrong. But there is a right and a wrong way to challenge that. People often confuse that. Please don't.
This farmer may well have felt that what Monsanto was trying to enforce was wrong. So challenge that in court. Campaign against them. Raise awareness. Start an organisation to fight the patenting of genes. Whether the contract was wrong or not, that doesn't grant the him the right to simply ignore the law and breach a contract he knew about.
Music piracy is much the same thing. I don't necessarily agree with the way the RIAA operates. I'd still rather vote with my cash or challenge them legally than try the childish "well they did something wrong so it entitles me to!"
Moderate -5 - Goes against the general