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

[Nicolás Reynolds]

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)
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