With the US issuing patents for yogasanas or yoga postures, they're a step away from patenting the body and two steps behind patenting the mind! Yes, what I say sounds ridiculous, but patenting the body postures seems equally ridiculous to me.
Yoga is not something thats meant to be sold. It'd be like selling the air you breathe. As the teachers at Shivananda ashram, Rishikesh, say about their YVFA course being free: all thats *necessary* is available free# in this world. But US seems to be saying "what I make is mine, what you make is not yours. You pay me for what I make and you pay me for what you make too (whether or not you want to sell it)". Leaving aside the $3B yoga-generated monies at stake in America, think what else it could mean.
Yoga asanas were and are actually meant to keep the body healthy to remain in a position for long enough to meditate single-minded. Getting healthier by the day is a good side effect while getting attached to the body is a bad side effect. Throwing all that, including yoga itself, a newer side to all of this is the money game!
Yoga is defined as chitta vritti nirodha meaning: cessation of modifications of the mind. So, aren't we really moving towards patenting the mind in coming times?
#Of course, you may say that food, water and shelter aren't free anymore. But by food, its not your pizza, noodle, dosa... we make that want a necessity. Nature takes care of everyone naturally, but the unnatural advances have made us pay for needs too! The way yoga is being made money out of, way back in the past, some wise guys must have decided to make money out of the basic needs too! Anyway, just a thought.
4 comments:
I wonder if the US flag is patented ... Maybe if it is not someone should patent the Stars and Stripes just for fun ...
Btw I met a few Americans in the last week travelling to and fro Jordan and one paradox I cannot understand -- As individuals they come across as sensitive mature human beings but as a group America tends to be portrayed as an arrogant bull in a china shop ... How does this happen?
Cheers
Gautam
They might sue you for even filing such a patent. ;)
Who knows; could be dikhane-ke-daant, mob psyche or groups of nice & arrogant people without overlap! :D
An addition ... I came across this editorial on NIST dot ORG: http://www.nist.org/news.php?extend.233
This relates to basic respect for IP. My understanding is IPR violations happen all over the world. From the G10 to the third world and beyond. What differentiates is in most parts of the world - including India - this is called as theft and done cladestinely. USA is the only place where SSNs are posted brazenly on web sites and when caught these thieves talk about "free speech" ... Does this say something about ethical standards in US?
Just a thought ...
Best Regards
Gautam
I've only one thing to respond to: ethical standards.
*Standards* fall apart when *ethics* are measured in terms of money. We all know how the US fought wars and what for. In other words, the adage: When money talks, morals walk.
BTW, GPL's lawyer who teaches a similar subject voices that software is like math and no software (algorithm) patents are valid for such. :) I've something else to say on IP, which I'll take offline or into another blog entry sometime.
Thanks for all your comments and links.
Lastly, I myself don't believe in copyrights, but copylefts. Whats democracy without a free-world!
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