I thought patents for software were wrong -- try patents on NATURE!

This Essay Breaks the Law - New York Times (Michael Crichton):

The entire genome of the hepatitis C virus is owned by a biotech company. Royalty costs now influence the direction of research in basic diseases, and often even the testing for diseases. Such barriers to medical testing and research are not in the public interest. Do you want to be told by your doctor, "Oh, nobody studies your disease any more because the owner of the gene/enzyme/correlation has made it too expensive to do research?"

Crichton may be an idiot when it comes to global warming, but he's right on this one.