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How science is shackled by intellectual property
,----[ Quote ]
| The myth is that IP rights are as important
| as our rights in castles, cars and corn oil.
| IP is supposedly intended to encourage
| inventors and the investment needed to bring
| their products to the clinic and
| marketplace. In reality, patents often
| suppress invention rather than promote it:
| drugs are "evergreened" when patents are on
| the verge of running out â companies buy up
| the patents of potential rivals in order to
| prevent them being turned into products.
| Moreover, the prices charged, especially for
| pharmaceuticals, are often grossly in excess
| of those required to cover costs and make
| reasonable profits.
|
| IP rights are beginning to permeate every
| area of scientific endeavour. Even in
| universities, science and innovation, which
| have already been paid for out of the public
| purse, are privatised and resold to the
| public via patents acquired by commercial
| interests. The drive to commercialise
| science has overtaken not only applied
| research but also "blue-skies" research,
| such that even the pure quest for knowledge
| is subverted by the need for profit.
`----
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/nov/26/science-shackles-intellectual-property
Recent:
Stopping the ACTA Juggernaut
,----[ Quote ]
| The ACTA juggernaut continues to roll ahead,
| despite public indignation about an
| agreement supposedly about counterfeiting
| that has turned into a regime for global
| Internet regulation. The Office of the
| United States Trade Representative (USTR)
| has already announced that the next round of
| Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)
| negotiations will take place in January â
| with the aim of concluding the deal "as soon
| as possible in 2010."
|
| For the rest of us, with access to only
| leaks and whispers of what ACTA is about,
| there are many troubling questions. How can
| such a radical proposal legally be kept so
| secret from the millions of Net users and
| companies whose rights and freedoms stand to
| be affected? Who decides what becomes the
| law of the land and by what influence? Where
| is the public oversight for an agreement
| that would set the legal rules for the
| knowledge economy? And what can be done to
| fix this runaway process?
`----
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/11/stopping-acta-juggernaut
USA Treaty Priorities?
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| Maybe the only explanation for the US being
| the last holdout from this worthy sounding
| treaty that even Somalia will ratify is that
| it is just too busy protecting the obsolete
| business models of the RIAA and MPAA through
| the secret ACTA treaty process and doesn't
| have enough time or resources to worry about
| lesser priorities, such as protecting
| children.
`----
http://excesscopyright.blogspot.com/2009/11/usatreaty-priorities.html
Question on ACTA and the Telecoms Package
,----[ Quote ]
| Here is a draft for the question:
|
| In the recently concluded conciliation
| on the Telecoms Package, it was decided
| that no measures restricting end-usersâ
| access to the internet may be taken
| unless they are appropriate,
| proportionate and necessary within a
| democratic society, and never without a
| prior fair and impartial procedure that
| includes the right to be heard and
| respects the of presumption of innocence
| and the right to privacy.
|
| Are the proposals currently being
| discussed in the Anti-Counterfeiting
| Trade Agreement (ACTA) negotiations
| fully in line with the provisions that
| were agreed in the conciliation on the
| Telecoms Package? If not, when and how
| will the Commission redress any
| incompatibilities of the ACTA?
`----
http://christianengstrom.wordpress.com/2009/11/15/question-on-acta-and-the-telecoms-package/
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