On Tue, 27 Jul 1999, Albert Henderson <noblestation[_at_]compuserve.com> wrote:
>
> On Wed, 21 Jul 1999, Timothy Phillips <hrothgar[_at_]telepath.com> wrote:
> >
> > A world of copyright is like a world in which,
> > when I buy a tomato, I may eat the tomato, but
> > I may not plant its seeds and grow my own tomatoes
> > for market.
>
> A commercially grown tomato is probably a hybrid. Created
> by someone, a hybrid is sterile. You can plant away. Nothing
> will happen.
No, a hybrid is not necessarily sterile. In fact, among plants the problem is that hybrids don't "breed true", that is, if you plant the seeds of a white marigold, you may get yellow and brown if there are other (non-white) marigolds nearby. Plant hybridization is done under special conditions where the plant is only allowed to cross with another, specific plant. Sort of like arranged marriages for vegetables.
As for the silly analogy, if you change "A world of copyright" to "A world of patent" you might be more correct.
Stephen J. Hyland (who's undergraduate degree is in agriculture) <shyland[_at_]computer-lawyer.com> Received on Wed Jul 28 1999 - 11:19:26 GMT
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