Here's the mail I sent to Celera (webmaster@ - the only exposed address); I suppose the main point I was going to make was the downside of "their right" to patent. Note the mention of the Compuserve-Unisys patent. Of course, CS/U would *never* try to extort money for that - they'd leave it in the public domain. (doh!)
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Dear Celera,
I'm sure you're going to get a lot of mail on this issue; let mine be one of the more polite ones.
Frankly, the idea of a company (or organization) having legal hold over the structure of the human body is abhorrent to me; in describing your efforts, the word "monstrous" comes to mind. To counter the standard statement: "I don't care if medical progress slows due to non-patentability of human genes. I'd rather have a body that was 100% mine that had an illness, than pay licensing fees to you for my genes, and be illness free." Any denial you might make about the threat of such licensing is meaningless. Once the genes enter the world of human business, it's inevitable, even if it isn't Celera that ultimately does it. (Ever hear of Compuserve-Unisys, and the GIF file format patent? Sounds very familiar right now.)
Here's hoping that the US Government is going to deny your efforts, or that the courts strike them down if the patent office is naive enough to let them pass. Pity I'm an atheist. Or I'd wish you to hell as well.
Slashdot Mirror
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Dear Celera,
I'm sure you're going to get a lot of mail on this issue; let mine be one of the more polite ones.
Frankly, the idea of a company (or organization) having legal hold over the structure of the human body is abhorrent to me; in describing your efforts, the word "monstrous" comes to mind. To counter the standard statement: "I don't care if medical progress slows due to non-patentability of human genes. I'd rather have a body that was 100% mine that had an illness, than pay licensing fees to you for my genes, and be illness free." Any denial you might make about the threat of such licensing is meaningless. Once the genes enter the world of human business, it's inevitable, even if it isn't Celera that ultimately does it. (Ever hear of Compuserve-Unisys, and the GIF file format patent? Sounds very familiar right now.)
Here's hoping that the US Government is going to deny your efforts, or that the courts strike them down if the patent office is naive enough to let them pass. Pity I'm an atheist. Or I'd wish you to hell as well.
Cheers,
[legal name]