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The OSSI page explains that "If [public domain seeds] were available only in a traditional commons, people could obtain them, breed with them, and restrict thei
by zodiac 12y ago
The OSSI page explains that "If [public domain seeds] were available only in a traditional commons, people could obtain them, breed with them, and restrict their use through patents or licenses", whereas seeds with the OSSI pledge cannot.
It's analogous to how public domain software is not Free Software (by Richard Stallman's definition). Maybe it would be more technically accurate to name the OSSI something like the Free Germplasm Project.
- jqm 12y agoAh, Ok. Yes, I suppose one could get open pollinated seeds currently available, select and hybridize them, and patent the resulting product (which probably is more or less what seed companies have been doing). So this attempts to stop that practice on seeds from the OSSI breeders. It would have been nice had they been more clear about this in the article and talked a bit less about what color of shirts the people were wearing.