[NAFEX] Response to Heron's message of 02/17/06
Dennis Norton
dmnorton at royaloakfarmorchard.com
Sun Feb 19 19:27:07 EST 2006
I guess I'll throw my 2 cents worth in on this issue of "Patent "
infringement. After having operated a successful retail operation that sold
music for 13 years, I can identify with the infringement situation. Music
and videos are probably the most abused "copyrighted" material out there.
I watched my business grow at a pace of 20% per year form 1992 to 1997. The
advent of the internet really got started with consumers in 1995 and by
1998, my sales were flat. By 1999 I saw them dropping by 10% per year. My
music sales suffered from people not paying for their music. As more and
more people began downloading music, less and less music was being sold by
"independent retailers" and more was being sold by the "bog box" stores at
deep discounts to compete for the same dollar that was shrinking. I sold my
business in 2003 and became an apple grower with the rest of my family.
"Copyright infringement" changed the way music is sold today. The law
states that you cannot make a copy of a CD period. You cannot make a copy
of anything that is copyrighted for any reason unless granted permission by
the copyrighter. Patent laws are the same.
I appreciate the attitude that one would gladly pay the researcher their due
if they knew where to send it. If NAFEX and other groups and providers
of rootstocks are in a position to help breeders recover fees that are due
to them, then I suggest NAFEX provide a way to get payment to the breeder.
Maybe NAFEX should create an umbrella organization like CCLI has for
churches that copy church music all the time for their choirs and services.
A church pays a fee to CCLI and are given a CCLI account number for
reporting what they have copied. Go to
http://www.ccli.com/whoarewe/CopyrightLicense.cfm and see how CCLI does it.
The more music you copy, the more you pay annually. Everybody wins. If
NAFEX did the same sort of thing, we growers and propagators would be able
to pay the folks who deserve to get paid and everybody wins. just thought I
would throw my 2 cents in. As a grower, we pay royalties on the trees we
purchase and do not propagate from any stock that is patented, since we,
like everyone else, would not know who to pay. A central clearing
organization of system would solve this and I think in the long run would
enhance the propagation of new varieties. Especially if all necessary
information was being reported to a central location.
Dennis Norton
Royal Oak Farm Orchard
http://www.royaloakfarmorchard.com
----- Original Message -----
From: Ribes60 at aol.com
To: breen at fedcoseeds.com ; Nafex at lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Saturday, February 18, 2006 3:07 PM
Subject: [NAFEX] Response to Heron's message of 02/17/06
This is a response to Herons message of 2/17/06
I agree with most of what Heron wrote, I admit that I did not fully
understand all of it. I think that I, and probably most of the participants
of this group agree the basic premise is true and that few of us would avoid
paying the royalty for the use of new selections. That said, I am not
willing to buy, in the beginning, all the trees that I might want to grow.
There a several reasons for this, I want to see how this selection performs
here, I may want to change the rootstock and since taste is a very
subjective characteristic, I want to know how it suits me and my use. I have
never seen a catalog presentation that said “this is a mediocre selection
but you may like it”. The description always says that this is the greatest.
Some catalog offerings indicate that the selection is a patented variety,
but says nothing about any restrictions regarding propagation. The
“patented” is more often a sales pitch that implies that this is a very
good selection and you should have it.
If I decide that I want to grow more of this selection, I would rather
graft it onto rootstocks of my choice and number and send “X” number of
dollars to the researcher or breeder that produced the selection, not to the
propagator who expanded the selection. The royalty should go to the breeder
and if sent to anyone else, I doubt that it would get where it should go.
I suspect that many of you on this list would send “X” number of dollars
to the breeder if you knew how or where to send it. We are much more
cognizant of what it takes to produce a new selection. Most of the consumers
that buy these plants do not have a clue what that “Patent” means.
NAFEX and other groups and providers of rootstocks are in a position to
help breeders recover fees that are due to them if, we as a group or
organization, knew the best way to send these funds to the breeder. We often
run workshops teaching budding and grafting and other forms of propagation,
therefore we should be able to also teach a bit of ethics and how to
compensate the breeders. This should be a part of every grafting workshop
and of every extension office in the country.
I am not opposed to paying the fees, I just need to know who to pay them
to.
Ed Mashburn
Central PA
Zone 5A
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