The 2nd Enclosure Movement – owning the Mind
Some time during the industrial revolution, around the 14th century in England, land that had been owned in common between farmers became "enclosed" and given to the artistocracy for private ownership. The idea was to prevent the "tragedy of the commons" - whereby materials that were shared (ie aerable land) was overused to the detriment of all.
This same logic has now been applied to "intellectual property". The argument goes that if intellectual property (songs, movies, etc) is shared, their is no incentive for the creator to create it. This idea is re-created over and over again by the mainstream media.
Yet the key difference between regular property and intellectual property is that intellectual property can be copied without robbing the resource from the person it is copied from - a downloaded song does not rob the original song owner.
Regardless of this basic fact, the "enclosure" of intellectual property continues at a greater and greater pace each day. Because of this, humanity has less and less shared heritage and resources. As shown in the previous Act, the content industries have succesful eroded the concept of a public domain.
Perhaps even more alarming is the enclosure of the basic elements of life. From patents on the human genome, to patenting of indingenous plants and knowledge, corporations are increasingly turning to food, to life, and to the products of the earth that can save lives to earn their profits.
To illustrate this rapid enclosure, a visit to the US patent office is in order, to discover some of the more shocking examples of these enclosures.
Ethiopian Teff - the staple of Ethiopan food has been patented by a German company - although the Ethiopians can receive royalties from the results, as long as they don't try and create new products from their own wheat
Germans and Baobab Tree - The germans have also patented the leaves of the BaoBab tree - on of the most powerful symbols of the African sahara. The extracts from the leaves help in the making of cosmetic products - something not new to African tribes have been using the same extracts for healing for centuries. Nonetheless, only the German corpoation Cognis can benefit from these properties internationally, as they have registered the patent.
John Moore - In 1987, a similar case was filed by John Moore in California. Moore was undergoing treatment from the University of California to remove his cancerous spleen. Moore got suspicious after several samples were taken after he’d been cured. It turned out that the University of California has patented his spleen! When Moore sued, claiming only he could own his own body, he was rejected. Over 1/5th of the human genome has already been patented – and the numbers increase daily.
Indian sheevar cow - In India, indigenous groups are fighting an attempt by PPL Therapeutics Ltd , the company that owns the patent on Dolly The Sheep, to patent the “Vechur†cow, a rare breed of draught-cattle that can produce double the amount of milk than European cows. India has begun to lead the charge against bio-piracy, by mapping and cataloguing their traditional knowledge. In Bombay, Indian scholars and scribes fill warehouses with computers and professors, taking into digital form their animals, their culture, and their heritage, so that no-one may claim it as their own.
