Stardate 20010815.1618 (On Screen): Of course, with every actual or potential technological revolution, there's also the opportunity for new scams. A company in San Francisco wants to make money by helping celebrities to copyright their own DNA, as protection against being involuntarily cloned by someone else. (Britney Spears, take notice!) It's a crock, of course; I would be very surprised if it could be done. Copyright is intended to protect
"original works of authorship". Since a given person is not the author of their own DNA, and since DNA is not an intellectual work, it's hard to see how copyright would be appropriate.
But even if it was, it's not necessary to do anything to have it. As of the US ratification of the Berne convention, copyright is automatic. It isn't necessary to put a copyright notice on a work, and it isn't necessary to file anything. So what service, exactly, is this company offering? Well, apparently, they're going to do a DNA test, yielding an output film, and then copyright that. Only that, too, is not a work of authorship. Sorry, Charlie. (But if it makes people happy, what the hey?) (discuss)
Update 20010817: This article satirizes the concept of getting a patent or copyright on yourself.
