I can't answer your question but I wanted to mention (for those that missed it before) that one of the items the WTO planned to discuss at the recent Seattle meeting was software patents. The corporatists want to expand patent protection worldwide. They also want to patent genetic code as well, and make sure that people in poorer countries have to pay up for the pharmaceutical research done in richer countries (much of it at public expense). Hereis an informative article about the WTO from ZNet, which has a whole subsite dedicated to the (worldwide) WTO protests and the issues involved, covered from a populist point of view. For what it's worth, I've also emailed Amazon announcing my boycott. P.S. Anyone have a better word than corporatists?
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I can't answer your question but I wanted to mention (for those that missed it before) that one of the items the WTO planned to discuss at the recent Seattle meeting was software patents. The corporatists want to expand patent protection worldwide. They also want to patent genetic code as well, and make sure that people in poorer countries have to pay up for the pharmaceutical research done in richer countries (much of it at public expense).
Hereis an informative article about the WTO from ZNet, which has a whole subsite dedicated to the (worldwide) WTO protests and the issues involved, covered from a populist point of view.
For what it's worth, I've also emailed Amazon announcing my boycott.
P.S. Anyone have a better word than corporatists?