Software, The Internet & Everything, Who owns knowledge? , Intelectual Property

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Who owns knowledge? And what is Intellectual Property?

Knowledge

We learn things from the day we are born. Our parents give us their knowledge and tries to transfer information to make us intelligent and successful in a world that is build on information, history and knowledge. We go to school and learn things that are common knowledge from the "big ocean" of world knowledge. And that ocean is changing, growing and expanding every day.
What was unique and proprietary information yesterday, is transformed and replaced by knowledge that is commonly available tomorrow. This might be information on how to make and use nuclear weapons, DNA, the brain, intelligence, poisons or computer algorithms.

The Hoodia Cactus

http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2002/images/0508hoodiaBIG.jpg

(From the WebSite of The American Association for the Advancement of Science)

The San people of southern Africa is a minority of bushmen who lives around the Kalahari desert. For ages they have used a cactus plant called Hoodia to eliminate hunger while they where away on their hunting expeditions.

In 2001 a pharmaceutical company said it had discovered a potential cure for obesity derived from an African cactus plant. The company had patented P57, the appetite-suppressing ingredient in the Hoodia, to make it into a slimming pill for the western world. The patent rights for the drug, was later sold for $21m to Pfizer. ( The Observers story and more info from Zaire)

So what did they sell ? and was it theirs to sell ? The knowledge and information was not new, maybe for some, or a lot of people, but not for all. And what right does anyone have to claim the ownership for knowledge that is not new, truly unique or undoubtedly only in the possession of the holder?
More and related info: Spore and T.E.K.* P.A.D and more..

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