What If Ideas Belonged To Everyone? – Intellectual Property
P.O.S and Eric Mayson join us for our very first live episode. Ryan breaks down the history of intellectual property and asks “holy shit does someone own this?”. Spencer talks about Humanzees. Stef thinks money is to blame, and Mayson claims not to own oxygen.
Hot Topics: Chumans. Intellectual Property. What Is My Purpose? Everybody Sample Stef’s Shit. The World’s Saddest Kindergartner. Uncle Mouse. Naruto. How Do You Milk A Snake? Stalin Was A Dick. You Get Cancer.
Holy s***, does someone own that?
People have tried to patent a lot of weird stuff. Currently, someone holds patents for a one-person seesaw, a kimchi vending machine, and Rock, Paper, Scissors: The Card Game. People have tried, and failed, to patent even weirder stuff. Harley-Davidson tried to patent the sound of their motorcycles. McDonalds tried to patent the prefix “Mc”.
Animal Patents
Since the 1980s, animal patents have increased. The first such patent was for Oncomouse, a mouse genetically modified to get cancer more easily. Prior to Oncomouse, biologist Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov tried to make a human-chimp hybrid, or a humanzee. It’s not clear if he was successful, but we’re suckers for a weird story.
More recently, Naruto, a macaque from Indonesia managed to take a selfie. David Slater, whose camera took the picture, argued he owned the photograph. However, since the monkey clicked the shutter, some argued that the photo belonged in the public domain. Apparently, monkeys aren’t legal people capable of owning copyrights.
Eric Mayson is a singer, songwriter, and musician. Listen to his music here.
Stef aka P.O.S is a rapper and producer. Listen to his music here.
Humanzee – Story of Oliver the Chimp
Naruto, the selfie-taking monkey
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