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anti-republocrat's avatar

Fuck "transparency." No government employee, especially those charged with regulation of corporations using their intellectual discoveries, should receive royalties from the use of their discoveries. This is not just the "appearance" of a conflict of interest. It is blatant. No individual employees of large corporations receive royalties on their intellectual property, even though there is no conflict between the interest of the employee and that of the corporation. The corporations own the intellectual property.

When an employee of the federal government generates intellectual property, that property must be owned by the government in general, not by the employee. Otherwise, the employee has an incentive to influence the government to subsidize, in one way or another, the licensing of that property to a private entity for production. Lax regulation is only one of the many forms such subsidy may occur. It may also come in the form of direct funding for the licensed entity or other favorable treatment.

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Useless Idiot's avatar

How would Americans feel if FDA scientists instead of assuring the safety of our food were working to invent new additives and collecting royalties for this? Or if USDA scientists patented & personally profited from genetically engineered seed stocks? Would we trust the government in their primary role of oversight in the interest of our safety? Of course not! That we allow this in the case of CDC is bizarre. Thanks for wonderful reporting.

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