Patents are an infringement of property rights, and gene patents are an especially bad idea. C4SIF Board Member David Koepsell makes this point in his Who Owns You? The Corporate Gold Rush to Patent Your Genes and in his upcoming documentary Who Owns You?1
Maybe the anti-IP message is gaining some traction: U.S. Says Genes Should Not Be Eligible for Patents (N.Y. Times). Predictably, this makes patent shill Gene Quinn apoplectic.
- See also my posts Who Owns You? – A Documentary – Trailer; Are Libertarians For Intellectual Property?: Comment on David Koepsell’s “Why I Believe Gene Patenting is Wrong”; Koepsell – Quinn “Debate” on Gene Patents; Gene Patent Absurdity. [↩]
It’s a disappointment Obama didn’t take advantage of the opportunity to do more unorthodox things in areas where he didn’t have to get a Congressional majority, like easing off on drug law and IP law. I recall in 2008 thinking he might be an outside-the-box thinker like Jerry Brown, at least — but since he entered office he’s been a dick about enforcing reactionary crap when he could have pleased “progressives” with the stroke of a pen. Good case in point is all the cases where the Solicitor General fights to defend Bush’s national security claims in court, supports Dont Ask Don’t Tell all the way to the Supreme Court, etc.
BTW, I don’t think Quinn needs anything to make him apoplectic.
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