• Telorand@reddthat.com
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    21 hours ago

    They could always make the research and processes public domain, so no one person can unilaterally profit.

    But that’s not what they did, and that’s the problem.

      • Telorand@reddthat.com
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        21 hours ago

        Of course not, which is why they’re publicly funded. That’s the issue. They’re using public funds to make private profits.

          • Telorand@reddthat.com
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            20 hours ago

            License and release it into the public domain: research, methods, processes, patents—the whole deal.

            Privatizing medicine, even elective medicine, just ensures predation.

            • catloaf@lemm.ee
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              19 hours ago

              I’m not following. Making the results public domain doesn’t prohibit private companies from manufacturing for profit.

              • Telorand@reddthat.com
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                18 hours ago

                No, you got it. It’s not about prohibiting profit, it’s about preventing the exclusive ability to profit.

                Think of generic medicines (in the US) versus brand equivalents and how vast their cost difference is.

                • catloaf@lemm.ee
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                  16 hours ago

                  Which is reasonable in principle, but when they sell the exclusivity, they’re and to put that money back into their research expenses.

                  I’m okay with public money going to funding research projects that become private profit for a limited time. I’m a capitalist system, which is what we’re operating in, this seems to be the most effective. Government partially funds otherwise unprofitable R&D, companies make the product, and ordinary people are able to buy it at reasonable prices, and once exclusivity ends, anyone can make it.

                  • Telorand@reddthat.com
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                    14 hours ago

                    That would be great, except in the US, that exclusivity can last for decades, which means entire generations will come and go before it becomes public.

                    In a better-regulated system where consumers are put before corporate interests, it could work, but the US hasn’t been that for a long time.