Day 3

Well, it's been great chatting with you. I'll have to stop in the next time I get to be in Germany. That sounds great. I'll keep an eye out for you here. Ah, look, here's another customer for you. No, I'm just about to leave. Plus this is the best bartender here tonight, so you can't go wrong sitting here.
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Hey, long time no see huh. I know, I said I wasn't going to be back for a while, but my flight's been delayed. Go figure, but it's a good excuse for another drink. Plus, I see that creep from earlier is gone. Men, such pigs sometimes. Oh, not you of course, but certainly him. You know, in a way I really don't mind the delays. It's just another excuse to not have to worry about work and let the firm pick up another tab of mine. I get reimbursed for dining expenses while I'm out, so I have no problem tipping you generously, it's not my dime. Exactly, great job, but it always comes with its price. I had to work my up the attorney chain to get the good perks, so I've done my time. This is what you get for ten years of slaving away in the corporate world.

No, sadly it's not all great perks, even with becoming a partner. We've got a ridiculous case going on right now, but I'm confident we'll win it. Some online company is trying to sue a bunch of search engines for using their photos whenever people search terms that would link you to those photos. The company is saying it's putting their business at risk, but I'm not too worried about the case. The Supreme Court has already heard something similar. It's a real mess out there in the legal world though. All this crap with copyrights when it comes to internet use. We're using precedents that are hundreds of years old and trying to apply them to technology that's only been around for a few years, it gets pretty messy.

The company has some legitimate concerns. They sell a lot of artwork, so the fears aren't completely unsubstantiated. There's probably a percentage of people that blow-up the online image and turn around and sell it as a print. I doubt it's too much though. You've got to remember how many unique customers are being brought in because of these search engines. Customers that would have never discovered a particular piece of artwork without these search engines. So in a way this company is throwing a hissy-fit even though they're getting free advertising that would cost them thousands. I think they just need to sit back and be happy they're getting an increase in customers. Not to mention, we're going to destroy them in the case. You've got the biggest search engines in the world going against one little art print store. It's almost not fair.

No, I completely understand, it is pretty awful, but that's how the law works. It's us versus them, and if you can hire more lawyers then who you're up against and spend more time looking up precedents and going up with solid interpretations of laws, you're going to win. It really doesn't have anything to do with who's wrong or right, or who's actually guilty. Whoever has the resources is going to win in a case, especially when it's something in civil law like this. We only have to have a majority of the evidence on our side and it's done. There's no beyond a shadow of a doubt. It'll be a cake walk, and I'm hoping it helps the whole open source movement too.

Ah, yea, open source, it's all the free use things you find on the internet. It's kind of a hobby, but it's so great. It lets people create their own little programs for others and you don't have to pay to use it. It's huge in the developing world. If you have a computer and it doesn't run a particular program, there's no need to buy something new, just fix the code yourself and you're good to go. So many big companies spend millions just trying to protect their products from smart programmers taking them apart. Think of how much more we could accomplish if instead of trying to keep all these things secret they were all publicly available! Granted, there should still probably be some protection, for a period, so you can make a profit. It's certainly a new age, and something where the old protection of intellectual property is rapidly vanishing, for good or bad.

Now one thing where copyright protection is getting scary, and brace yourself for it, life itself. There are biomedical companies that are trying to patent genes, genes! Think of it, the building blocks of life that have been around for billions of years are being copyrighted by companies that analyze the makeup of these things. It's really getting scary. Soon you may not be able to have a kid in a hospital without having to pay some company for the genes in that kid. It's just the same in agriculture, with huge companies patenting seeds. I mean sure, it's a valid point to copyright a completely synthetic genome. Stuff like vaccines and the like have been protected by copyright and patent law for decades. It's when you start claiming rights to the genes for things like the eye color brown that you're getting into trouble.

There's about to be a huge issue with how people are able to function in society. So many genetically induced disease are starting to be curable, but people are very skeptical about all of it. Most require you to change the DNA of the zygote before it's implanted in the womb, so most religious groups are completely opposed, saying we're playing God. Well I'm glad to hear you've got an open mind. I agree, it's not so much playing God as using the talents God has given us. If God didn't want us to discover gene manipulation, why allow us the technology to go about it? Besides, so far no one has tried to make unnatural things. Only improving what already exists. None of my clients try to make three headed humans, they make sure disease aren't cropping up in the genes of people. How is getting rid of the genetic risk of someone having a stroke any different from putting them on blood thinners when they're forty years old? It's the same cure for the same condition, just without a pill each and every day.

Granted, what's going to happen is inevitable. The people who are willing to allow their kids to be genetically cleared of disease are going to proper. It's such a terribly expensive procedure that only the wealthy will be able to afford it unless the government steps in and subsidizes the procedures. If you don't universal these genetic tinkerings you're going to create a new class of people, a genetic upper class. People without the removal of genetic conditions will become second class citizens in a generation or two, so once we start genetic improvements consistently we really need to push for it for everyone, if they want it. Religious issues should be the only deterrent, not economic ones. Although even a religious reason to not do so may become invalid pretty quickly. Who's to say that it's not neglect of the parents if they have the ability to cure Parkinson's Disease or Alzheimer in their children and don't. How is not wiping out those conditions any different then from a parent who refuses to help their kid when they've got a cold or a break arm. Isn't having the ability to help someone overcome a life threatening risk when you can, especially at no cost to yourself the very definition of what's ethical?