Nobel Prize Laureate slams intellectual property rights

[w1z4rd]

"Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, who was fired by the World Bank blasted drug patents in an editorial in the British Medical Journal titled 'Scrooge and intellectual property rights.' 'Knowledge is like a candle, when one candle lights another it does not diminish its light.' In medicine, patents cost lives. The US patent for turmeric didn't stimulate research, and restricted access by the Indian poor who actually discovered it hundreds of years ago. 'These rights were intended to reduce access to generic medicines and they succeeded.' Billions of people, who live on $2-3 a day, could no longer afford the drugs they needed. Drug companies spend more on advertising and marketing than on research. A few scientists beat the human genome project and patented breast cancer genes; so now the cost of testing women for breast cancer is 'enormous.'"

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[Debbie]

More deaths and injustice arising from our current flawed ideas on information ownership.

Surely we can do better than this.

 

[Natas]

I was an intellectual property lawyer for a while and for a while there I struggled with issues like these. It is obvious that patents are needed in that people do lots of research and discover things with utility. They then need to recover their costs incurred in R&D and then need to make a profit.

IP law tries to achieve a balance between aloowing an inventor a time limited monolpoly, patents in south africa last ten years from date fo grant and cannot be rrenewed, and allwoing free access to and use of information. Things however do not always work out as they aer planned.

In south africa you would not be able to patent somehting like tumeric. You can only patent and invention. Your quote simply mentions tumeric adn I not quite sure what this relates to exaclty. However it brig s to mind teh registration of plant rights and companies like Monsanto. I think this may be what happended here and I can say that what people like monsantao are doing is very scary. this is perhaps the area where the patents system and the law as is poses the greatest risk not only to poor people but to everyone in general.

 

[w1z4rd]

. However it brig s to mind teh registration of plant rights and companies like Monsanto. I think this may be what happended here and I can say that what people like monsantao are doing is very scary. this is perhaps the area where the patents system and the law as is poses the greatest risk not only to poor people but to everyone in general.

Also watch that documentary called, :The Corporation ?

 

[Debbie]

tumeric - replace with basmati aloe hoodia ....and these are just the ones from the top of my head.

 

[Natas]

Also watch that documentary called, :The Corporation ?

I used ot ahve it on my pc but then before I watched it I deleted it..My wife is an environmental scientician, so i read a lot fo this stuff...its deperessig and people think you are some kind of one mans doom's day cult when you talk about it too much. Have heard the corporation is good but I think if I watch it I might be forced to become a tree hugging, picketting hippy..not QUITE READY for that phase of my life yet...and anyways, my Biker phase comes before the hippy phase.....

 

[w1z4rd]

I used ot ahve it on my pc but then before I watched it I deleted it..My wife is an environmental scientician, so i read a lot fo this stuff...its deperessig and people think you are some kind of one mans doom's day cult when you talk about it too much. Have heard the corporation is good but I think if I watch it I might be forced to become a tree hugging, picketting hippy..not QUITE READY for that phase of my life yet...and anyways, my Biker phase comes before the hippy phase.....

The tree hugging hippy stereotype is a stereotype started by corporate lawyers similar to what you used to do. Not everyone wants to be a money grabbing capitalistic pig (another lame stereotype) (I am referring to the average corporate lawyer... not you) . I advise you to watch the documentary and get informed. I think you will really enjoy it.

As you should understand, ignorance is not a sufficient excuse.