On Sunday 29 Jul 2007 8:30 pm, Venkatesh Hariharan wrote:
> Hi Charles,
>
> My replies below:
I am just wondering if this entire "intellectual property" hoohah is more
American, and in fact _recent_American_ rather than "Western"
Knowledge, as in "gyan" - especially in science, and particularly in Medicine
was freely shared in Europe and indeed by the US that took over Europe's
mantle in many ways.
It is the US of the last 40 years or so, with its patent lawyers, that has
skewed things in this direction.
I believe that the long arm of the American lawyer, attached to greedy
("cotton pickin'?") fingers has brought the world to this pass. American
lawyers - apart from being involved in this patents galata, are to be found
in strange places - such as a backseat driver standing behind the virtual
pilot of a pilotless armed Predator unmanned aerial vehicle - to decide
whether the truck or village party being tracked has Osammy in it, and
whether it is legal to blast the object into jannat.
shiv
