I didn’t know that a company could patent two of the genes that cause breast and ovarian cancer: The patents granted to Myriad give the company the exclusive right to perform diagnostic tests on the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes and to prevent any researcher from even looking at the genes without first getting permission from …
Free Markets Solve Everything
Cyberwolverines!
Former NSA director Mike McConnell thinks we need to gear up for cyberwar, and he has a modest little plan: We need to develop an early-warning system to monitor cyberspace, identify intrusions and locate the source of attacks with a trail of evidence that can support diplomatic, military and legal options — and we must …
First Lemming Over The Cliff
Rupert Murdoch has just announced that he’ll be charging $1.50 a day, $3 a week ($155/year) for the privilege of reading the London Times and Sunday Times over the Internets. In further craziness, he’s decided that an iPad subscription to the Wall Street Journal is worth $18/month, while one delivered by the regular Internet is …
Dying Empire Update
Viacom made big headlines two years ago when they filed a billion-dollar lawsuit against YouTube for “brazen copyright infringement”. Today, YouTube released their side of the story, which includes a few interesting facts: For years, Viacom continuously and secretly uploaded its content to YouTube, even while publicly complaining about its presence there. It hired no …
First Thing We Do
I’d missed yesterday’s Times piece on Lehman, but it’s worth mentioning that US corporate lawyers come off looking pretty good: Here, the investment bank used repos to temporarily park assets off its books to make its end-of-quarter debt levels look better than they did — while calling them sales instead of loans. The accounting tactic, …