<nettime> copyrighting DNA tunes

["Jon Ippolito" <JIppolito@guggenheim.org>]

>From the Now I've Seen Everything Dept:

"Maxygen's scientists and lawyers are proposing [to] encode the DNA
sequences as MP3s or other music files and then copyright these genetic
'tunes'....As the 'authors' of these DNA-based songs, Maxygen could, in
theory, control the rights to the compositions for 95 years or more--as
opposed to the 17 years given under current patent law."

http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,52666,00.html

As laughable as Maxygen's proposal is, it also hints that the structural
defects of copyright--which is supposed to protect the lowly from the
mighty--are independent of the particular situation of art and artists.

What's next, a Celera Genomics press conference with guest spokesman Lars
Urlich?

I pity you science fiction writers out there, trying to think up futures
as bizarre as our present.

jon

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