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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Daniel Schuh who wrote (131066)	1/30/2001 12:53:39 PM
From: Joe NYC	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1572152

Dan, the "private property" at issue here is an artifact of the patent system. Not to be melodramatic or anything, but why is upholding that particular governmental invention more important than millions of people dying? Why should our government be more worried about the "property rights" of drug companies than the right to life of all the people dying from AIDS worldwide? Millions of people are dying annually from number of different causes (in addition to old age) such as malnutrition. I am not sure it is a justification of confiscating all the foods that the farmers grow. If the government is so concerned about some cause, it can do the normal thing - pay the price and increase the taxes to do it. This would be a good test of how much people really care (vs. what they say). Or the government can buy these patents from the drug manufacturers. Everything is for sale, if the price is right. In the long run the patent laws can be changed, so that future patents operate under different rules, or the government may negotiate a deal on patent protection in return for government grants for research. I just don't see why the first reaction is to steal. Joe

To: Daniel Schuh who wrote (131066)	1/30/2001 1:31:25 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1572152

Joe, the "private property" at issue here is an artifact of the patent system. If you want push for changes to the patent system for future drugs, or for the whole system, but IMO it would not be right for the government to take away the all ready established patents. Not to be melodramatic or anything, but why is upholding that particular governmental invention more important than millions of people dying? If you don't uphold patent rights then there is little incentive to spend any significant amount of money to develop new drugs Tim