Our country has a problem with intellectual property. People think you can own anything. This is frustrating, because it seems that soon you will have to pay to think. This would get very expensive. Were we to, say, quote part of the “I Have A Dream” speech on this page, we’d have to send $50 to Martin Luther King’s family. Don’t think for a moment that the good Dr. King would be into this arrangement, or, for that matter, the Founding Fathers. Think $50 to hear about little black children and little white children playing together is ridiculous? Check out Mother Jones’ list of “intellectual property run amok.” Honestly, it’s absurd. Even best-selling author Michael Crichton (whose views don’t always seemed to run in the progressive direction) has come out against absurd rules about intellectual property on the New York Times Op-Ed page. Amusingly, we can’t link to the article because it’s behind the Gray Lady’s ever-helpful Times Select firewall. Luckily for everyone, Mr. Crichton has put it online himself. Apparently, someone owns your genes. But they’re still letting you use them while they figure out how to make money from them. How considerate.
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