When Indonesia sells a strain of avian flu virus to one corporation rather than let hundreds work on a vaccine, the chance of finding a vaccine decreases (47). When a corporation patents a vaccine and rations its use to those who can afford it, the pool of uninoculated will be too large to prevent a pandemic.
SHOOT: I've written about this topic before [When Copyright is Copywrong]. In principle I agree that we have the right to be credited and rewarded for original ideas. In practise this is becoming not only harder to police, but we can no longer afford it. We need to make our priorities more altruistic and share them equitably.
SHOOT: I've written about this topic before [When Copyright is Copywrong]. In principle I agree that we have the right to be credited and rewarded for original ideas. In practise this is becoming not only harder to police, but we can no longer afford it. We need to make our priorities more altruistic and share them equitably.
Knowledge, which actually improves with use, is the ultimate nonrival resource. In the example above, not only would China’s adoption of solar technology not limit the use of it by the United States (barring serious constraints on resource inputs), China would most likely improve the technology thus conferring benefits to other users. However, if we use patents and prices (protected by the WTO) to ration use, other countries may not be able to afford the technology, and if they continue to burn coal, the technology will do nothing to solve climate change. Only nonexcludable, open-access information will solve the problem. For example, existing patents on nonozone-depleting compounds drive up their costs, leading India and China to favor ozone depleting hydrochlorofluorocarbons which generated the worst ozone hole in history in 2006 (http://ozonewatch.gsfc.nasa.gov/monthly/index.html).
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