Depending on your worldview Intellectual Property (IP) is either necessary or holds us back in terms of cultural (and economic ) development. IP applies to more than what you may think, it covers cartoons to medicine. What’s more, international trade has meant that the American approach to IP is spreading.
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Accidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Oliver Bullough writes that the combination of increased wealth concentration and the free flow of money across borders to attacks currencies and governments represents an urgent threat to democratic governance. And Owen Jones argues that now is the ideal time to push for
Continue readingThings Are Good: Toyota Releases 5,680 Patents for Fuel Cell Technology
Toyota has followed Tesla’s strategy of giving their patented technology away for free. The patent system is so obviously broken so it’s nice to see these large corporations just letting their patents go. Ultimately, this means that other car companies can now use fuel saving technology (or whatever Toyota has
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Making Sense of the CETA
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives says the Canada-EU trade deal favours large multinational corporations and burdens consumers, the environment, and the greater public interest. The post Making Sense of the CETA appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Steven Hoffman and Julia Belluz write that the current ebola outbreak – like many health catastrophes in the developing world – is traceable largely to the warped incentives facing medical researchers: (W)e’ve learned a lot about Ebola: that it’s spread through contact
Continue readingBravo to Elon Musk, patent-buster
Inventor/entrepreneur/engineer/investor Elon Musk recently announced he was giving away all the patents on Tesla Motor’s electric car technology, allowing anyone, competitors included, to use them. Musk, CEO and product architect for the company (for which he receives a salary of a dollar a year), made the announcement last week, commenting,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Michael Harris observes that the Cons’ vote suppression tactics match the worst abuses we’d expect from the Tea Party: Stephen Harper would make a good governor of Arizona. In addition to the lies and sleaziness his government has been serving up during its
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Henry Blodget recognizes that the systematic corporate squeeze on mere workers represents a deliberate choice rather than an inevitability: One of the big reasons the U.S. economy is so lousy is the American companies are hoarding cash and “maximizing profits” instead of investing
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Sunday reading. – Aviva Shen looks at Monsanto’s history of regulatory capture – with the recent “Monsanto Protection Act” serving as just a minor example in a long list of control over U.S. law: Monsanto insists that its revolving door is in overdrive because Monsanto employees
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: #mtlqc13 Priority Resolution – Human Rights
The final panel on policy resolutions at the NDP’s Montreal convention will deal with human rights issues. And the Young New Democrats of Quebec have proposed a resolution which covers a number of issues worth including in that discussion: 6-26-13Resolution on Rights in the Digital AgeSubmitted by the Young New
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week.- Thomas Walkom discusses what the Cons’ attack on unions through bill C-377 is ultimately designed to do:Finance department figures show that the tax exemption for union and professional dues does indeed cost the fed…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Sunday reading.- Michael Geist notes that even as the Harper Cons have done nothing but hand more free money to big pharma through ever more generous patent giveaways, the Supreme Court of Canada has offered a reminder of the …
Continue readingcmkl: Take patent discussions, health care out of Canada-Europe free trade talks
Here’s a letter I wrote to my beloved prime minister via the Canadian Health Coalition’s campaign against patent protection and health care’s inclusion in Canada-Europe free trade talks. Please take a minute to sign and send the letter.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Carol Goar comments on the CEP/CAW plan to merge and work toward a far more active type of unionism: Both the CAW and the CEP — of which I am a member — gobbled up smaller unions to reach their current size.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your weekend. – Yes, the usual caveats about trying to predict future commodity prices apply. But Stephen Maher’s warning about the effect of rising fuel and food prices is still worth keeping in mind: That shift doesn’t mean that North Americans are about to take meaningful
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Since the Cons don’t seem to have much else in their quiver at the moment, I’m sure they’ll keep trying to pretend that it’s monstrous of Thomas Mulcair to suggest that all industries (including those in Alberta) pay the cost of their real
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