[geeks] Drug prices [was Re: nVidia 8800GT for Apple Mac Pro]

[der Mouse]

> Both Canada and India (perhaps other countries as well), do not pay
> the going rate for patented drugs.

Patented where?

> Instead, they give the drug companies a choice: either sell it to us
> at what "we ($country)" think is a fair price, or, we will remove
> patent protection from the drug, and produce it ourselves, paying you
> just a pittance for the use of the patent.

Assuming this starts with a nominally valid patent in $country (which
is implied but not staed), I'm of multiple opinions about it.  (If it
doesn't, there is no patent protection to remove and thus no basis for
a scenario such as you sketch at all.)

On the one hand, I'm not fond of any kind of expropriation, which is
basically what you describe.

On the other, I've seldom seen as clear-cut a case of overwhelming
public interest, at least assuming this is done only very occasionally,
for the most puoblicly important cases (such as AIDS drugs for Africa).

On the third hand, it could hardly happen to a nicer victim.

On the fourth hand, this is a good example of damage being done by the
mess that is the current intellectual property system.

> Maybe to underscore this, the USA should remove copyright protection
> on anything written by Mordecai Richler, Margaret Atwood, Robertson
> Davies etc. unless the publisher agrees to sell those books at
> below-market rates?

Yes, I think it should.  I actually think it should go further and
scrap copyright altogether.  It _isn't_ really doing what it was
designed to do and _is_ doing a lot of damage.

> Doesn't $10 for a 600-page hardbound book, sound a lot more "fair"
> than $26.95?

I don't know; I don't actually know what it costs to produce a book
(beyond any cost associated with obtaining the right to do so).

Hmm, this must be why reprintings of Shakespeare don't exist: the
content is not under copyright....

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