Indonesia Stops Sharing Avian Virus Samples

dankrabach writes "Indonesia has apparently decided to play the IP game, with the world's health at stake. The country, one of the hardest-hit by avian flu, has stopped submitting virus samples to the World Health Organization, and is negotiating to sell them to an American drug company that makes the vaccine. They feel slighted when they give away such samples, but then cannot afford the patented vaccines. Logical to me, given the rules of the game; however, can't we come up with some GPL'ish license to free any product based on this data?"

Comments

obligatory wargames quote

[imbaczek]

The only way to win is not to play.

Re:A Solution

[HomelessInLaJolla]

At one time I agreed with you. The following text is included not so much directed at you, Captain, but is included so that maybe others will read it and see the logic which is currently ruining our nation (and the world).

My study of the Constitution has led me to believe otherwise:

Article 1, Section 8:

The Congress shall have power ... To borrow money on the credit of the United States So, what, the founders didn't realize that, no matter what restrictions they placed on the federal government concerning scope of power, authorizing one group to borrow money on the credit of another group was a carte blanche pass for indentured servitude? Just like a fractal or a Mandelbrot set the premise starts small (as in 1776) but continues to expand along the same pattern until, 230 years later, we see the grand system as it is today. It simply isn't possible that they could have overlooked this very important aspect as they had plenty of instances, in their own time, where Britain had played the "we hold the financial cards so either you will do what we say or you will starve" game.

The only possible excuse is that, the way the Federal Government was initially structured, the debt of "The United States of America" may have been completely separate from the common taxpayers.

Article 9:

All debts contracted and engagements entered into, before the adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution, as under the Confederation. Arguably this may have been written with a good heart. The entire nation needed to be free of Britain and, as such, it was everyone's responsibility to pay for the war.

Amendment 14, Section 4:

The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law ... shall not be questioned. This is impossible to morally, ethically, or legally justify. I'm going to quote an earlier post:

Of particular interest is the quote from the 14th Amendment (pph.) "the validity of the public debt shall not be questioned". What business does that have in a legal document in general or, more specifically, in the Constitution of the United States of America (land of the free, home of the brave, home of free speech, etc. etc. etc.)? Shouldn't the politicians be free to debate whatever they wish for however long they wish? Isn't that what they do already? That must've been one heckuva firestorm argument in the Senate or House for them to include, in a Constitutional amendment, verbage which amounts to "just don't bother asking about it anymore."

Is it coincidental that this verbage is included in the amendment just after the 13th Amendment (Abolition of Slavery)? Could it be that the Federal Government had sold itself into unsalvageable debt during the Civil War and some politicians, who didn't feel it was proper to put the entire population into wholesale indentured servitude for a war that most of them never asked for, tried to convince the rest to simply default on the loan and tell the bankers to stuff it? Could this unsalvageable debt be the explanation for the 1929 pump'n'dump and the 2000 pump'n'dump? After all of this I'm fairly convinced that the USA didn't so much win the Revolutionary War as much as Britain said,"Okay, look. You're not worth fighting about it with. You can go off and have your own silly little nation and silly little government because, when it all comes down to it, we still control the money, the banks, and the international shipping lanes which you will have to use to do anything."

Re:Avian Flu

[operagost]

I'm still waiting for the earth to freeze from that global cooling they were talking about in the 60s and 70s. Looks like my efforts to pump as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as possible is staving off the next ice age! Now please excuse me, I'm going to drive my Hummer to the end of the driveway to get my mail.