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The Insane Feces Of The Indonesian Bat // Filed under: Politics on Friday February 02nd 2007, 3:15 pm In what is only the latest in a series of batshit-crazy political one-up-manship with Australia, the Indonesian Government has claimed intellectual property rights to the Indonesian strain of H5N1 avian influenza. Yes, you read that right - the Indonesian Government is asserting that it owns the rights to this strain, and moreover, since Australian pharmaceutical company CSL recently developed a vaccine for avian influenza based on this strain, the Indonesian Government is entitled to a share of the profits. Despite the fact that this strain of which the vaccine was based was delivered by the World Health Organisation, and despite the fact that there is no legal precedent for IP ownership over a naturally-created virus, and despite the fact that the vaccine was produced under contract with the Australian government so any profits will be minimal in the extreme… Indonesia believes that it can own this virus. Completely. Batshit. Insane. Here’s a thought - if Indonesia owns this virus, and believes it is entitled to a share of the profits from a vaccine against it, are they then entitled to be sued for damages when their virus destroys poultry, livestock and livelihoods? Who comes up with this? Seriously, do they all get together in the Indonesian cabinet every month and have a brainstorming session to see who can come on air and say the most retarded thing they can think of to try and one-up the Australian Government? At least they’re coming up with new and interesting ideas, I guess. Instead of the Australian Government which, as far as I can tell, just throws darts at a board to choose what to centralise under Federal control next. // 1 Comment
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Tinkling Koala says:
February 10, 2007 at 4:53 am