Thursday, May 26th, 2005
RECOMMENDED READING
Dave at The Glittering Eye has posted his long awaited piece on the WTO and intellectual property rights, entitled “The Sound of Coins “. In a nutshell, Dave gives a cogent explanation of the core issue:
“In practice, things are not quite so rosy. Once again narrowing the focus to the intellectual property law of biotechnology, Article 27.3(b) of the agreement micro-organisms, non-biological, and microbiological processes must be eligible for patents. Governments may elect to exclude plants, animals, and “essentially biological processes” from patent protection but plant varieties must either have patent protection or some sui generis system created especially for the purpose (or both). There are also a number of issues outstanding:”
My second recommendation involves the semi-psychotic outburst from Amnesty International on al Qaida detainees at Guantanamo ( one wonders how the entire island of Cuba can be invisible to Secretary Khan except for Guantanamo. It’s a remarkably selective sense of political geography to say the least) covered by Penraker who argues that Amnesty has lost all credibility because their Secretary is a moral idiot:
“What is Khan doing? Is she really this dumb? No. She is fundraising. She knows what impulses drive her contributors. She is doing this at the expense of the honor of the United States. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch used to be of some value. But like many international organizations, they were taken over by the more radical elements, and have become seriously opposed to the United States and perhaps even to democracy. How else can you account for their relative nonconcern for the real trouble spots in the world? How else to account her giving China, Cuba and a hundred other countries with far, far more egregious abuses a free pass?”
Agreed.
ADDENDUM: Marc Schulman weighs in asking if Secretary Khan has a soft spot for Islamists.
