Slashdot Mirror
The Guardian On Intellectual Property
mykdavies writes "The Guardian has an excellent article giving lay readers an overview of some of the problems being caused by the concept of 'intellectual property', including references to stories familiar to Slashdot readers, such as DVD Jon, the Sony rootkit, Amazon and Google business patents." From the article: "Even facts about the world can, in some cases, become the property of commercial companies. It was the promise of gaining patents on the human genome that lured investors into the private consortium that attempted to sequence it in competition with the public effort. Laboratory animals have already been patented, starting with the OncoMouse, an animal whose genome has been manipulated to ensure that it develops cancer."
Something is very wrong with the patent system when living creatures can ba patented.
That's not the worst thing we do to animals. Some people chop them up and eat them.
Guess you never heard of a slippery slope before?
This is by far the most absurd extreme example I have ever seen. Patent holders equivelent to murdurers? Rapists? OMG!!!!
Perhaps you where trying to make a point of the difference between physical property abuses and intangible ones? If I where to adopt your viewpoint as my own...I would also have to agree with the idea that someone who makes many copies of some software somewhere should be locked away in jail as if they raped someone? It's a two way street...
Think rationally for just one moment, not just attacking the entire system because some patent of yours was rejected for prior art...the truth is accepted that we currently have many issues with our current patent system. Software patents are a huge factor...software already has protection through copyrights after all. Another would be the benifit vs damage done by providing medical patents and monopolies. Extreme examples would be that of an AIDS vacine never being created because of patent A or company B wants to profit from forcing people to purchase drugs for the rest of their life.
The current state of the patent system is directly related to the shift of how companies are handled and managed. People switch jobs every three years for a reason these days. CEO's get swapped out like playing cards for a reason. Our corporate views have shifted from creating things...to creating revenue. There are problems with our current patent system...but I'd hardly call myself a rapist.
These "peers" you speak of work for large corperations devoted to MAKING MONEY. They are not Joe Blow working in his or her basement punching out life saving meds. These people work with the system to make money for theirselves, likewise they should be forced to abide by the rules of that system. Nothing anywhere stops them from breaking all the patent rules, creating the cure for theirself and publishing it all over the internet anonymously.
But that doesn't happen, because it takes a lot of funding and time to build such a cure...these companies have devoted that time and money. It would be unethical for a person working in the medical field to only provide a treatment when a cure is available. It would be their obligation to quit their job and provide the knowledge they are with holding. But hey I'm sure they value their jobs money and freedom more than the lives of countless millions.
Government can not police the reasons companies have trade secrets..nor can they stop NDA's or other contracts used in the corperate world to create just the situation you described. You are attacking the wrong system. The patent system is designed to promote competition, and seed development in specific areas. If a patent holder does not maintain or provide his creation to the public in whatever capacity he deams fit he could loose control of the rights to that patent. You seam confused to say the least if you honestly are going to equate real violence from greed.
Take another look at your example...these same nations are not willing to devote time and money to simple steps they can prevent the spread of AIDS, they want a magic pill...that cost billions to develop. It is not the answer, only another step to dependence on foreign powers...