MESSAGE
| DATE | 2020-10-14 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout - NYLXS] License Insanity continues to destory society
|
https://www.vice.com/en/article/m7jm4y/proprietary-grapes-come-with-draconian-end-user-license-agreement?utm_content=1602683336&utm_medium=social&utm_source=motherboard_twitter
vice.com
Proprietary Grapes Come With Draconian End User License Agreement
4-5 minutes
They did EULA to a grape.
A company put an end user license agreement (EULA) on a bag of grapes:
“The recipient of the produce contained in this package agrees not to
propagate or reproduce any portion of this produce, including ‘but not
limited to’ seeds, stems, tissue, and fruit,” read the EULA on a bag of
Carnival brand grapes posted on Twitter by user Tube Time.
When you purchase a bag of delicious and sugary Carnival brand grapes,
you enter into an agreement whereby you will consume the grapes and do
nothing else with them. This kind of warning against reproduction is
something we’re used to with digital products like video games, but is
jarring to see spread to the world of consumer produce.
“It’s always shocking and more than a little absurd to find these
licenses on everyday consumer products, especially at the grocery
store,” Aaron Perzanowski, a law professor at Case Western Reserve
University and the co-author of The End of Ownership, told Motherboard
in an email.
In the broader world of agriculture, however, there's actually quite a
lot of precedent for this. And patented seeds with specific restrictions
is a constant sore point for farmers. Agriculture giant Monsanto has
patented a whole host of proprietary seeds that are weed- and
insect-resistant, and threatens to sue farmers who harvest and replant
them from year-to-year. In fact, the Supreme Court has already ruled on
this.
“There actually is a solid legal basis for this sort of license. The
Supreme Court decided a case called Bowman v. Monsanto a few years back
that held a patent owner had the right to restrict the use of soybeans
by prohibiting the reharvesting and replanting of seeds in subsequent
seasons,” Perzanowski said. “So if the grape variety here is subject to
a patent, buying the grapes at the store doesn’t necessarily entitle you
to grow new ones.”
The Cotton Candy, a sugary version of the common grape, is indeed
patented by horticulturalist David Cain. Perzanowski said he disagrees
with the Supreme Court’s ruling. “For a product like a seed, I’d argue
that replication is inherent in the product itself,” he said. “So making
new copies is a normal and expected use that purchasers ought to be able
to engage in and that no license can take away.”
Being that seeds are a natural "product" that are designed to reproduce,
there are all sorts of other interesting wrinkles here, many of which
have not been solved, legally speaking. For example, plants grown from
Monsanto-patented seeds can be naturally replanted by insects, birds,
and humans by accident (in the way that plants have replicated naturally
for millions of years.) They can also be cross-pollinated with
unpatented (or open-source pollen/plants, if you will), creating a new
strain of plant. Are those plants subject to patent? Is Monsanto going
to sue a bird for taking a seed and "planting" it somewhere else?
The grape situation is a little bit different. With Monsanto's seeds,
farmers are purchasing them directly from the manufacturer (or a
licensed seller). With Cotton Candy grapes, an end-user (uhh, grape
eater) did not plant or grow the seeds and is merely purchasing the
fruit at the store. They are not purchasing the grapes (and thus the
seeds) directly from the manufacturer or the farmer who grew them, they
are buying it from a grocery store. The seeds have thus been re-sold
several times.
According to the patent, the grapes are 18% sugar. “As for the fruit
itself? Not that great, they're just too sugary for my tastes,” Tube
Time said on Twitter. Although not allowed to propagate or reproduce the
fruit, Tube Time was able to make them more palatable by freezing them
and turning them into Grapesicles.
--
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town
that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological
proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
http://www.mrbrklyn.com
DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
http://www.brooklyn-living.com
Being so tracked is for FARM ANIMALS and extermination camps,
but incompatible with living as a free human being. -RI Safir 2013
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