This Essay Breaks the Law

NYT ^ | Published: March 19, 2006 | By MICHAEL CRICHTON

[Grig]

• The Earth revolves around the Sun.

• The speed of light is a constant.

• Apples fall to earth because of gravity.

• Elevated blood sugar is linked to diabetes.

• Elevated uric acid is linked to gout.

• Elevated homocysteine is linked to heart disease.

• Elevated homocysteine is linked to B-12 deficiency, so doctors should test homocysteine levels to see whether the patient needs vitamins.

ACTUALLY, I can't make that last statement. A corporation has patented that fact, and demands a royalty for its use. Anyone who makes the fact public and encourages doctors to test for the condition and treat it can be sued for royalty fees. Any doctor who reads a patient's test results and even thinks of vitamin deficiency infringes the patent. A federal circuit court held that mere thinking violates the patent.

All this may sound absurd, but it is the heart of a case that will be argued before the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

[antiRepublicrat]

The speed of light varies depending on what medium it's moving through.

I believe the writer left off three important words that are usually used, "in a vacuum."

[Carry_Okie]

As I said, the original intent of intellectual property law was to encourage innovation, now it actually discourages it.

Unless you have hard data to support that conclusion, it is a subjective one at best. Just because someone would have to pay for the use of intellectual property (which you put in quotes) doesn't mean that net innovation is discouraged. Rewarding the producer has a way of motivating the demonstrably productive.

[antiRepublicrat]

I just (R)egistered the word "pattented" and intend to maintain it's (C)opyright for the next 18 years!!!

Copyright now lasts far beyond your death, or most likely an infinite term since the government keeps retroactively extending it.

Wishing for the old days, 28 years plus a 28-year renewal. That's more in line with the constitutional intent.

[dead]

In purely geometric terms, it's no more correct to say the Earth orbits the Sun than to say the Sun circles around the Earth. In terms of Newtonian mechanics, neither statement is correct: both bodies orbit their common center of mass.

The common center of mass between the earth and the sun is located within the sun, so it is more correct to say the earth orbits the sun.

[Mogollon]

I just pattented the word 'bump'. I'm going to be soooo rich! :-)

You may want to patent the word "pattented" while you're at it.

[SlowBoat407]

The speed of light is still a constant, because it can be applied in a formula to determine refractive index. Now, velocity...

[A. Pole]

"Elevated homocysteine is linked to B-12 deficiency, so doctors should test homocysteine levels to see whether the patient needs vitamins."

ACTUALLY, I can't make that last statement. A corporation has patented that fact, and demands a royalty for its use. Anyone who makes the fact public and encourages doctors to test for the condition and treat it can be sued for royalty fees. Any doctor who reads a patient's test results and even thinks of vitamin deficiency infringes the patent. A federal circuit court held that mere thinking violates the patent.

Free market privatization on the march. Soon everything will be owned by some private entity including the air we breath.

See my tagline.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Just because someone would have to pay for the use of intellectual property (which you put in quotes) doesn't mean that net innovation is discouraged.

Gene Patents Stifle Basic Research: An Economic Analysis

[HamiltonJay]

USSC will throw this patent out.

[Tanniker Smith]

Somebody already copyrighted silence. I'm not kidding. Four minutes, 33 seconds of silence to be precise.

I'm safe then. I'm a high school math teacher and that tune has never been sung in my class. At least, not for that duration.

[IronJack]

I got you beat. Last week, I patented the letter "E." This thread alone has netted me enough to finish paying off my bass boat.

[Larry Lucido]

The earth revolves around the sun and rotates on its axis.

So if my revolver cylinder rotates, what revolves and what does it revolve around? Should I put a tether on it? :-)

[Deguello]

"So if my revolver cylinder rotates..."

It is not a cylinder, it is a flat disk that rotates by means of a turntable device and plays music from vibrations the needle picks up following the set grooves in the disk.

Revolver was an okay album.

[Larry Lucido]

"Revolver was an okay album."

Also doubles as a Frisbee(TM) which neither rotates nor revolves but is sometimes described as a "gyroscopically stabilized disk," so I guess it gyrates, but not like this one girl I knew but I can't get into that right now.

[feedback doctor]

I copyrighted and petented the phriase "It's Bush's Fault" I'll get rich off of all the liberals.

[feedback doctor]

Correcting spelling errors

I copyrighted and patented the phrase "It's Bush's Fault" I'll get rich off of all the liberals.

[TChris]

The concept of patents was doomed the moment software patents were legitimized.

Now, any thought that occurs to you can be patented if you can afford it. It's absolutely insane and unsustainable.

[Dont_Tread_On_Me_888]

Facts can't be copyrighted--why could a patent be issued on a "fact'?

[willgolfforfood]

Maybe this is just semantics, but the speed of light is constant in ANY medium. The speed of light WILL vary as it leaves one medium and enters another, but within any medium, the speed of light is constant.

[beezdotcom]

But his estate sued another composer who did his own minute of silence, not simply playing a recording of the previous 'work.' About the only connection was a joking reference to the original composer in the credit.

The case never went to trial - Mike Batt settled out of court. However, I fully believe that Batt could have won in court, especially if the lawyer had framed the case properly. Where Batt screwed up was in actually having made a direct attribution to Cage on his album in the first place, and that's probably the only thing that motivated them to settle.