FW: The Pope on Patents

[Lawrence Rosen <lr...@rosenlaw.com>]

The Pope has now spoken. I presume we will all get into line now. I see this as a hint of God's vote in favor of open source. Don't you? 

 

/Larry

 

Lawrence Rosen

Rosenlaw & Einschlag, a technology law firm (www.rosenlaw.com) 

3001 King Ranch Road, Ukiah, CA 95482

Office: 707-478-8932   Cell: 707-478-8932

 

 

Feed: Patent Law Blog (Patently-O)
Posted on: Thursday, July 09, 2009 10:17 AM
Author: Dennis Crouch
Subject: The Pope on Patents

 


In a recently published encyclical letter, Pope Benedict XVI has taken a stand against strong patent rights because of they way that the exclusive rights of patents tend to promote wealth inequality at the expense of development in the world's poorest countries.  

"On the part of rich countries there is excessive zeal for protecting knowledge through an unduly rigid assertion of the right to intellectual property, especially in the field of health care."

The intellectual property statements only make up a few lines in the 144-page letter. However, they fit with the overall theme - that relying solely on monetary greed as an incentive does not lead to the right kind of development and actually creates instability.

The letter does not edify official Church doctrine, but it is used by Church leaders around the world in setting priorities.

In response, the IPO released a statement that it is "working to educate on the incentives that IP rights provide for advancing knowledge and creating jobs."

*	See “Encyclical Letter Caritas In Veritate Of The Supreme Pontiff Benedict XVI To The Bishops Priests And Deacons Men And Women Religious The Lay Faithful And All People Of Good Will On Integral Human Development In Charity And Truth,” June 29, 2009. [Link <http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20090629_caritas-in-veritate_en.html> ][Related Post <http://www.keionline.org/blogs/2009/07/07/pope-ipr/> ]

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Re: FW: The Pope on Patents

[Emmanuel Lecharny <el...@apache.org>]

Lawrence Rosen wrote:
> The Pope has now spoken. I presume we will all get into line now. I see this as a hint of God's vote in favor of open source. Don't you? 
>   
<cynical hat on>
Well, two things :
- first, he says so many stupid things that I'm not sure he will be 
followed when he randomly said something sane. The coin he tossed 
probably felt on the right side this time
- second, I'm waiting for a fatwah saying that patent are good, i'm 
pretty sure we will find some imam or ayatolah to push on this side.
<cynical hat on/>

Last, not least, I'm sure that if there is a god, he most certainly is 
GPL, and viral. I would rather pray for an ASL 2.0 god...

-- 
--
cordialement, regards,
Emmanuel Lécharny
www.iktek.com
directory.apache.org



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