[Solar-general] A general public license for seeds?

Jue Nov 25 16:07:33 CET 2010

Cool, didn't knew about that, I'll try to research a little more.

Being not only a 'social movement' but a true new Social Contract, GPL
licence and it's derivatives could be -and indeed it is at some
excent- a *real* political force that can change the face of our
planet.

The best part is it already demonstrated it works, it's not just a
speech, is something that actually works.

2010/11/25, Nicolás Reynolds <fauno en kiwwwi.com.ar>:
> Parece que es del 99 la propuesta, alguno/a sabe si llegó a algo?
>
> Title: A general public license for seeds?
> Author: Michel Bauwens
> Date: mar, 23 nov 2010 11:48:15 -0300
> Link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/P2pFoundation/~3/XP2__nxNkN8/23
>
> Context from Sepp Hasslberger:
>
> “The same multinational corporations that are putting their proprietary,
> genetically modified plants into the envorinment and onto our tables are
> also well on the way to establishing a monopoly …on seeds. They have
> purchased the majority of commercial seed companies and the choices for
> farmers to use non-GM seeds are getting fewer and fewer.
>
> So here is a counter-proposal. Following the example of what was done
> for free and open source software with a “General Public License” (GPL),
> Jack Kloppenburg is proposing to establish a GPLPG (General Public
> License for Plant Germplasm) license for seeds and plant varieties that
> allows free use of the plants by farmers and growers, but prevents any
> so licensed seeds or plants from being subsequently altered and made
> commercial.
>
> The license imposes on subsequent users of the Plant Germplasm (the
> seeds or plants) that any new varieties developed on the basis of those
> plants be similarly licensed for free use.”
>
> Background[1] excerpted from a paper by Jack Kloppenburg:
>
> “The specific mechanism Michaels goes on to propose is a “General Public
> License for Plant Germplasm (GPLPG)” that is explicitly modeled on the
> GPL developed by the FOSS movement for software.
>
> For Michaels, creating the GPLPG involves a straightforward adaptation
> of the GPL. Plant scientists would supply germplasm to other parties
> accompanied by a Materials Transfer Agreement (MTA) specifying the
> conditions under which the material is being made available. Those
> conditions would include copyleft provisions permitting (indeed,
> encouraging) further development and recombination and improvement of
> the germplasm, but requiring that any lines or cultivars “derived in
> whole or in part from GPL plant germplasm must likewise be made
> available to others under GPLPG and without further restriction for use
> in subsequent breeding programs” (Michaels 1999).
>
> This mechanism is simple, elegant, and effective. No new law is
> required; like the “shrinkwrap” license already common to software and
> commercial seed sales, the GPLPG is based on existing contract law. No
> patenting or PBR protection is necessary; again, the GPLPG is based on
> existing contract law, not on IPR statutes. The GPLPG is enforceable in
> existing law; just like the “shrink-wrap” license already common to
> software and commercial seed sales (Technology Use Agreements), there
> are statutory legal consequences for those who violate the license
> provisions. The vehicle for the GPLPG, the MTA, is familiar to the plant
> science community; the MTA is now the standard mechanism for germplasm
> exchanges in universities, government agencies, private companies, and
> the international system and scientists and administrators are
> accustomed to its use.
>
> The GPLPG can be used for patented or otherwise IPR protected materials;
> if an owner chooses to release IPR-protected materials under the GPLPG,
> those IPR provisions are not enforced against GPLPG licensees. The
> GPLPG is compatible with a flow of benefits to the breeder; royalties
> may be charged for reproduction and distribution of lines, but not on
> subsequent uses or distributions by others. The GPLPG is compatible
> with commercial seed sales; seed of GPLPG lines maybe reproduced and
> sold, but the vendor has no claim on subsequent uses or distributions.
> GPLPG seed will not be attractive for appropriation and incorporation
> into proprietary breeding programs; the “viral” nature of the license
> requires that any derivative lines developed using GPLPG germplasm
> must also be distributed under the GPLPG, thus eliminating the
> possibility of capturing monopoly profits from downstream and
> derivative applications and uses.
>
> In sum, the GPLPG is sufficiently simple to be used by many different
> actors (individual farmers, communities, indigenous peoples, plant
> scientists, universities, non-governmental organizations, government
> agencies, and private companies) in many places and diverse
> circumstances.  Properly deployed, it could be an effective mechanism
> for creating a “protected commons” for those who are willing to freely
> share continuous access to a pool of plant germplasm for the purposes of
> “bazaar”-style, distributed peer production.”
>
> More Information: Jack Kloppenburg[2], “Seeds, sovereignty, and the Vía
> Campesina: Plants, Property, and the Promise of Open Source Biology[3]“,
> prepared for the Workshop on Food Sovereignty: Theory, Praxis and Power,
> 17-18 November 2008, St. Andrews College, University of Saskatchewan,
> draft dated 22 November 2008, 34 pp.  [image 5][4][image 7][6][image
> 9][8][image 10]
>
> Links:
> [1]:
> https://colonos.wordpress.com/2009/02/27/seeds-sovereignty-and-the-via-campesina-plants-property-and-the-promise-of-open-source-biology/
> (link)
> [2]: http://www.ukabc.org/seeds&sovereignty.pdf (link)
> [3]:
> http://www.drs.wisc.edu/kloppenburg/_publications/2008%20Se%20eds%20and%20Sovereignty.pdf
> (link)
> [4]:
> http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/P2pFoundation?a=XP2__nxNkN8:mx2u_6pErQ8:7Q72WNTAKBA
> (link)
> [5]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/P2pFoundation?d=7Q72WNTAKBA (image)
> [6]:
> http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/P2pFoundation?a=XP2__nxNkN8:mx2u_6pErQ8:D7DqB2pKExk
> (link)
> [7]:
> http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/P2pFoundation?i=XP2__nxNkN8:mx2u_6pErQ8:D7DqB2pKExk
> (image)
> [8]:
> http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/P2pFoundation?a=XP2__nxNkN8:mx2u_6pErQ8:2mJPEYqXBVI
> (link)
> [9]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/P2pFoundation?d=2mJPEYqXBVI (image)
> [10]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/P2pFoundation/~4/XP2__nxNkN8
> (image)
>

-- 
Enviado desde mi dispositivo móvil