Attention! This is a long-read! While reading material, you will have to think and analyze, and you will get an intolerable desire to look into the situation!
Some time ago, on our website, the article about the Internet and intellectual property was published. The pretext was that, on November 15 and 16, two big ukrnet websites stopped their activity. They were considered piratical, but they were still quite popular among young people. Public discussions often presented two opinions: music, films, photos, infographics and other content are intellectual property, which should be paid for, while the second opinion is that there is no intellectual property, meaning that everything available in public space automatically belongs to everyone.
Читай українською: І ЩЕ РАЗ ПРО ПІРАТСТВО
Just to recollect: the previous article reported the opinion of the Head of the UGCC Youth Commission, Fr. Rostyslav Pendiuk, who asserts that one should pay for the content. “When we talk about, let’s say, music or films, we should remember that it is 
also the personal property of another person or persons. It is like, for instance, my phone. I purchased it, and it belongs to me. If I wish, I can lend it or sell it. But, if someone just comes and takes it because it is lying here while I am absent, it is not the right way. It is not the human way; it is not the legal way. And, what is important for us, it is not the Christian way. Because of our culture of respecting another person, of respecting another person’s property, it is a culture that is grown up, primarily upon a Christian ground.”
Meanwhile, Fr. Rostyslav indicates that the material state and mentality of a Soviet person cannot serve as a justification. “In the USSR, the mentality was that everything which seemingly doesn’t belong to anyone can be taken. That was a cultural background where people, such as the parents of the present youth, lived, and there’s no use in expecting that it will end at the moment. The second objective reason is the material state of many young people, which is not always sufficient to enable them to use everything they want.
At the same time, there’s the other side of the argument: primarily, it is just the law. And we, however difficult it was, whatsoever legacy we had, must learn legal culture. I would like for us, all together, to learn to use legal things. It is not so expensive as it may seem at the first sight.”
However, the opposite opinion that belongs to a programmer and a software developer, Maksym Gontar, reports the issue of intellectual property from another point of view, that of Christianity and genetics. It is unexpected but logical and sound. We suggest reading it thoroughly.
Divine Open-Source
It is an attempt to examine the Christian faith in order to ground the unnatural character of the so-called “intellectual property”.
“God blessed them, saying, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.’ … Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’ So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.’” (Gen 1:22, 26-28)
You will ask, “How is it related to the so-called “intellectual property?” The response is concealed in the modern scientific world-view of a man, i.e., in genetics.From the first verses of Scripture, we get to know that God created life and put into life the principle of reproduction. This principle is circumscribed only by external conditions and the biological age of organisms. Except for the commandment of reproduction, the Lord gave to humanity the commandment to dominate and to subdue, which is nothing else than invitation to participate in the process of Creation.
“Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation and heredity in living organisms, methods of handling them and organization of hereditary material; a field of biology. Through the universality of genetic code, genetics lies in the basis of all known forms of life, from viruses to a human being (Wikipedia).”
“Genetic information is the existence in an organism’s cells, of such blocks of genes which preserve information about the sequence of metabolic processes in periods of growth and reproduction, as well as about the composition, structure and functions of proteins and nucleic acids. The carrier of genetic information is nucleic acids: DNA and RNA (Wikipedia).”
“Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is a molecule that carries the genetic instructions used in the growth, development, functioning and reproduction of all known living organisms. DNA stores biological information (Wikipedia).”
Upon the three cited definitions, we can assert that it is genetic information (which, from the juridical point of view, is the object of the so-called “intellectual property”) which is the basis and the very essence of life, and it is due to the duplication of DNA and RNA that the processes of organic development (the formation of new cells) and, importantly, organic reproduction take place.
From this, one can make an interesting conclusion. Almighty God has founded the first and largest authorial nonprofit project with public coding, well-established testing, support and license for free diffusion and use, inviting mankind to be a full-value participant in this project. Let us dismantle this controversial statement into pieces. The fact that the project of Creation was the first and the largest doesn’t need to be proven. The Authors are also clear, since it is God who is the Creator and this truth of faith is asserted in His revelations. It is nonprofit because God has created the world in which life is possible, but life is not given for mercenary ends (since God is self-sufficient), but out of His infinite Love, as such should be, ideally, every act of creation performed by a man!
Public code: God has never forbidden a man to explore Creation; on the contrary, through the exploration of Creation, the Lord discloses to man His Wisdom, Almightiness and Kindness (the Book of Wisdom, Proverbs, Psalms, and the Book of Job)! Testing means that any unstable changes in genetic information lead to the reduction of an organism’s life and to the limitation of reproduction; thus, life itself is provided by the Creator with protection from unnecessary but possible mutation. Support is also the truth of faith about God as the All-Ruler, not only creating everything but also ruling everything. The License for free diffusion, as God’s commandment of reproduction to all the living creatures, not only permits but also wills to copy and spread genetic information. License for free use and mankind’s participation in the project of Creation, as God’s commandment to man to dominate and subdue, offers man to make free and unconditional use of God’s Creation; moreover, by receiving proper knowledge, a man is able to wisely modify the genetic information, and there is no blasphemy in this or that way, as the ruling of genetic material has always existed. Read, for instance, chapter 31 of Genesis, relating how Jacob applied selection to a herd of goats.
Genetically modified objects (GMO’s) are an example of how people apply this privilege given to us by the Creator. For as long as 25 years, numerous corporations use genetic engineering to obtain ameliorated kinds of crops. They obviously do it on a commercial basis, to gain profit and not to provide food for hungry regions. Moreover, the corporations, at the level of DNA, switch off the ability for organisms to reproduce, evidently so that no one could re-apply and spread this genetic information.
Was it the Creator’s guiding principle when creating life? Is it what God wants from us by inviting us to participate in Creation? Think over it, and the following statement: the Almighty Creator and, alongside Him, the whole of Creation testifies, with their essence and nature, against the so-called “intellectual property”, which is a technical invention of covetous madmen.
Here are two opinions, two theories, two approaches towards the same thing. Which one do you adhere to?
Based on: facebook.com/maxgontar
Photo: pexels.com, pexels.com, pexels.com
